


A Thread Prepared

by Slaskia



Series: A Single Thread [3]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Conspiracy, Gen, Identity, Identity Issues, Implied Unethical Experimentation, Mind Control, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags May Change, Wrongful Imprisonment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-07
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-04-19 18:48:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 40,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14243550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slaskia/pseuds/Slaskia
Summary: Thirteen agreed to help Yarzon stop his people, but he has many obstacles to overcome first.  The first being that he technically doesn’t exist.





	1. Next Step

**Author's Note:**

> Thirteen's real identity _will_ be revealed at the end. Though some may figure it out before then ;)
> 
> Also...expect a number of familiar faces to show up in this one!

If someone had asked if he trusted the Quintessons a few orns ago, his answer would be a very blunt ‘no’.  Which would have been followed by a few choice curses and descriptions of how he’d like to kill every single one of them. 

Now? 

Well, his answer would be pretty much the same, but he now had a ‘no-kill list’.  A list that consisted of just one Quintesson, but a list all the same.  

_To think I’d ever come to trust one._  

Thirteen stopped reading the datapad he was holding to regard Yarzon for a moment.  The Quintesson was putting together a new drone model.  A construction type, he believed, going by its bulky appearance.  Then again, from how small it was it could also be a mining type, or something else entirely.  Yarzon made so many different types of drones it was hard for him to keep them all straight in his head.  Processor.  Whatever. 

He sighed and rubbed his head.  Airfix had been helping him learn about his own anatomy and the correct terminology to use.  Finally got him a Cybertronian language program as well.  That…caused a brief conflict though:  his processor got confused on which language to use and he started speaking both Cybertronian _and_ Quintesson in the same sentence.  That had been a very confusing few cycles until they were able straighten it out.  Turned out they just needed to set one of the languages to ‘primary’ in his datacore.  Problem solved.  A pity though, he had found it a bit _funny_ at the time. 

Thirteen took a moment to reflect on his life.  To think he would learn of things besides pain and suffering.  He remembered when he first saw Yarzon, when he immediately thought he was just like all the other Quints and tried attacking him in a blind rage.   Yarzon had understood his position completely, however, and promised he would never harm him. 

A promise he had so far kept. 

Granted, at first, he wasn’t the best ‘host’, due to largely ignoring him initially.  Yarzon did admit he didn’t know what to do with him at the time.  Thinking back, Thirteen could see why:  this Quintesson worked only with non-living things, not living.  He was completely out of his element with him.  Yet, ignoring him was probably the best thing he could have done. 

Before, Thirteen had been the center of attention almost constantly.  That attention almost always painful.  By being ignored, Thirteen got his first sense of a life without that pain.  It allowed him time to think on things besides on wondering what kind of test was going to happen next.  Or on how to escape and inflict as much pain on his captors as possible before he was inevitably put into stasis lock again.  It gave him… 

…a taste of peace. 

So, when Hat-Nal had attacked the lab, Thirteen knew this peace would come to an end if Yarzon died.  This was why he was so willing to fight, knowing he would likely die.  He preferred death over going back to the endless cycle of pain and suffering. 

He survived and so did Yarzon.  At first, he questioned why he was saved, but Yarzon told him he needed his help to stop the other Quintessons from enslaving the rest of his people.  To stop them from spreading the cycle of pain and misery to others.  It was with that he felt something truly new:  a sense of purpose. 

Still, he had a lot to learn before he could probably ‘help’ him with this goal.  He had to understand what he was protecting.  Thus, the last few joors, his cycles had been full of reading and studying various topics.  Like anatomy and history.  Both Airfix and Yarzon would quiz him on what he learned as well. 

They were surprised at how much he already knew, particularly in science.  This was mainly due to what he had observed in the past, though much of it he lacked the context to make sense of it fully.  Yarzon had started helping him fill in some of those gaps and sometimes he allowed him to assist in his simpler projects. 

By that point, Yarzon had ‘converted’ his cell into a proper living space for him and allowed free reign of the lab.  No more was he constantly fenced in with forcefields and bars.  He could enter and leave his room at his leisure.  The only restrictions he had was that he was not to touch anything unless Yarzon said it was OK to and that he was not to leave the lab itself.  It was still more freedom than he had ever had before in his life. 

However, the lessons were also slowing.  Were they running out of things to teach him?  Surely not: he felt like there was still so much more to learn! 

There was a squawk of alarm as the drone Yarzon was building prematurely activated.  It had started flailing and bouncing about the lab wildly and Yarzon was trying to catch it.  Thirteen chuckled as he put the datapad down and helped him pin down the wayward drone. 

“Accidently connected the power core before the control module again?”  he teased after Yarzon turned the thing off.  That, and similar things, had happened a few times since Thirteen ‘moved in’. 

“Bah,” Yarzon grumbled, embarrassed.  “You’d think for someone who makes these things for a living I wouldn’t make such novice mistakes anymore.” 

“Perhaps it’s not due to inexperience, but age?”  Thirteen smirked at him. 

Yarzon’s tentacles flared a bit.  “I’m not that old for my kind!”  he then added. “Smartaft.” 

Thirteen chuckled and carried the drone back to the work table for him.  He watched as Yarzon started fixing the minor dents that had been put on the drone’s chassis due to its ‘escape attempt’.  After a few kliks, he decided to ask the question that had been on his mind as of late.  “Master,” he started, to get his attention. 

Yarzon visibly twitched.  Thirteen used the term in the context of ‘student/teacher’ not ‘slave/owner’, but obviously Yarzon immediately thinks of the latter, due to his people’s culture.  “Don’t call me that, Thirteen,” the Quintesson muttered. 

He barely suppressed the shudder at his ‘name’.  It wasn’t his name, not his real one anyway.  He had only given it to Yarzon when asked as he didn’t trust them then.  Now it was constant reminder of what he had once been through.  Yet he wasn’t ready to reveal his _real_ name to him, as he still had some doubt.  Perhaps he needs to think of a different, more Cybertronian one to use in the meantime?  Something to ponder on later. 

“Are you running out of things to teach me?” he asked.  “I’ve noticed Airfix hasn’t been bringing as many datapads on his visits.” 

“He’s being more careful on what he brings now,” Yarzon replied. 

“But I noticed the decrease _before_ the…’private collection’ incident,” Thirteen pointed out.  Yarzon flinched and his face had a ‘please don’t go there’ expression.  Thirteen chuckled faintly with amusement. 

Recently, Airfix gave him a datapad that was a bit…different and quite by accident.  It had been a short work of fiction about two bots in love.  Thirteen had asked Airfix if what the two bots in question did in it was how more Cybertronians were made and both he and Yarzon freaked out.  He had never seen Airfix look so blue as the medic explained to him that all new Cybertronians came from the Well of AllSparks.  Thirteen had found that rather boring, for some reason. 

Things got obviously more awkward for them when Thirteen asked what the point of ‘interfacing’ even was.  Airfix had struggled to answer, telling him it actually served a few functions.  That it helped relieve stress and formed bonds with others of their kind.  He quickly added the latter was only done between bots that really like each other, referencing the two characters in the story as an example. 

Thirteen had thought he understood, but was still having trouble seeing the point of it.  Perhaps because he was still learning about his own kind?  He had decided to drop it at that point, as poor Yarzon had looked like he was about to freak out again.  The Quintesson seemed to get uncomfortable really easily with that kind of topic, like he was now. 

“You are an observant one,” Yarzon chuckled.  “You learn very quickly, like all of your kind.  However, we have encountered a problem.” 

“What sort of problem?”  Thirteen asked, feeling concerned. 

Yarzon was quiet for a klik before he responded.  “We have discovered that, as far as public records go, you don’t exist.” 

Thirteen blinked at him, then looked at and felt himself.  “But I _do_ exist!” he protested, confused. 

“Physically, yes, but according society…no.  And so long as that is the case, we cannot move forward with our plans.” 

He did not like the sound of that.  “What needs to be done to ‘fix’ this?” 

“That, is what Airfix and I are still trying to figure out,” Yarzon sighed.  “And I do not know how much time we have.  As we speak, my people are having yours building massive structures of unknown purpose.  There’s been reports of disappearances among your population.  I suspect they are being taken by the so-called ‘Crime Suppression Squads’ my people implemented shortly after we arrived, though I have no proof.  I fear my people are conducting more experiments.” 

Thirteen rattled his winglets in anger.  “No!  We need to stop this!  I can’t have more suffer like I have!” 

“I know and agree, Thirteen, but we need to be cautious,” Yarzon told him.  “My people are already acting on small voices of dissent with their circus of a ‘justice system’.  One we will not survive if they find out about our plans.  We need to think this through.” 

Thirteen huffed, frustrated, his winglets flicking.  He understood the need for caution, but he felt the need to hurry things along, to protect his people.  A people he knew very little about, admittedly, and have met none save for Airfix. 

He looked toward one of lab walls, trying to imagine what the world looked like beyond them.  It was completely unknown aside from what he was told.  He was both curious and frightened by it.  Did he have the right to be so protective of a world, a people, that didn’t know he existed?  Thirteen vented a long sigh, his processor was starting to ache.  He needed to clear his processor. 

“Going to work on that puzzle box,” he muttered, heading for his room. 

\-- 

Yarzon watched him go, sighing himself.  He understood Thirteen’s eagerness to stop his people and the frustration that came with it.  It was a feeling he knew all too well, as he had experienced far too many times.  Things like this, however, could not be rushed.  They were pieces on a game board with a bunch of others: the wrong move would eliminate them from the game.  Worse, he did not know what other pieces were on their team.  A dangerous game indeed. 

A short time later Airfix arrived and from the look on his face he seemed to have come to a resolution to their problem, though a risky one.  “There’s only one way around this I can think of,” the white and orange flier stated.  “A trip to Iacon, to present him to the Prime.” 

Yarzon’s tentacles stiffened briefly.  “Airfix, we have no idea if Sentinel Zeta is a puppet or not,” he cautioned. 

“Hence why to just Sentinel and not his Council,” Airfix clarified.  “It would also not be as overwhelming for Thirteen.” 

He had a point. Sentinel _was_ elected by the Cybertronians themselves and the chances of him being a Quintesson shill was far less compared to facing a group of thirteen bots.  “Hmm….” Yarzon curled a tentacle against his chin.  “And the fewer that know of our ultimate plan, the less chance of being found out by my brethren.” 

“Exactly.” 

“The issue,” Yarzon sighed. “Is that Thirteen has yet to tell us directly what was done to him, individuals he knows he can trust.  You really think he will tell someone he doesn’t even know?” 

“He knows what is at stake, Yarzon,” Airfix reminded him.  “I think with some positive encouragement, he will talk.” 

“I hope so, Airfix.” 

“There is an observation I’d like to point out, one that could mean many things,” Airfix mentioned, quietly. 

“What is that?”  Yarzon raised a ridge, concerned. 

“You may not know this, but all Cybertronians know immediately what they are and the basics about their bodies the moment they come from the Well.” 

Yarzon’s tentacles stilled and went limp.  He had heard about this, but more as a rumor not fact until now.  “And Thirteen has been rather ignorant on many things…including not knowing what he was.  However, he knew Basic….” 

“Which he could have been ‘taught’ by his former ‘owners’, like we did with both Quintesson and Cybertronian,” Airfix pointed out, then added with a shrug.  “Or he lucked out and did naturally know it.  However, more worrying is that I haven’t found a bot matching his frame and coloration in the public records, which hints at a disturbing possibility.” 

Yarzon didn’t want to think about it, yet his processor went with it anyway.  “That my people somehow created an artificial cybertronian lifeform….”  He shuddered at the implications. 

Airfix was shuttering as well, the plates that made up the support struts for his turbines rattling slightly.  “There is a chance his…previous lack of knowledge was due to the trauma he’s been through.” 

Yarzon found himself hoping that was the case.  The implications otherwise were many.  “Let’s keep this to ourselves, until we know for certain,” he suggested.  Airfix nodded in agreement. 

“Ha!”  Thirteen suddenly exclaimed, bouncing out of his room.  In his hands was an open puzzle box.  “Got it!”  This one had been one of his ‘fancy’ designs, meaning the purpose of opening it was to create a beautiful pattern, though it still had a compartment to put things in.  The pattern for this one was a spiral galaxy, complete with little glowing stars. 

“Beautiful, you really outdid yourself with that one, Yarzon,” Airfix commented.  “How many steps did it have?” 

“Seventy-two,” Yarzon chuckled. 

“Bwah!?” Airfix staggered forward.  “And I still haven’t solved the ten-step one!” 

“Pfft…amateur…,” Thirteen teased, a broad grin on his face.  “Yarzon…I really like this one.  Can I keep it?”

“Of course, Thirteen,” Yarzon replied with a smile. 

Thirteen squeed as he reset the box, then put it into his subspace.  Then he got a serious expression.  “Figure something out yet?” 

“We may have,” Yarzon explained.  “We are thinking of taking you to Sentinel, the current Prime.” 

Thirteen looked already overwhelmed.  “The Prime?” He stepped back, cowering slightly.  “Am I really worthy to stand before such a bot?” 

“You are, Thirteen,” Yarzon assured him.  “Sentinel needs to know what happened and what will happen to your people.” 

Thirteen took another step back, his winglet’s twitching.  “I-I don’t know if I can tell him,” he whimpered.  “I haven’t gotten the bearings to tell _you_.” 

“You will not be alone with him,” Airfix told him.  “And we will speak to him first to let him know what is going on, so if you can’t he will understand.” 

“The trip to see him will take some time to arrange,” Yarzon added.  “So you have time to prepare yourself.  We will help you the best we can.” 

Thirteen nodded mutely in response. 

\-- 

Arranging transport was the easy part.  Yarzon ensuring his Quintesson brethren did not know the true purpose for his trip was not so easy.  His people knew his beliefs so ‘officially’, Yarzon was traveling to deliver his latest blueprints to the Hall of Records for archiving, which he was intending to do…but they didn’t need to know about the ‘side trip’.  Delivering data to the Hall of Records was something he had done many times before, so wouldn’t raise red flags with his kin on its own.  The other problem, was Thirteen himself. 

After Hat-Nal’s attempt on his life, they likely knew Thirteen was still online.  There was slim chance they thought Thirteen died of his injuries from his fight with Hat-Nal’s battle proxy, but Yarzon wasn’t going to take any chances.  So, he constructed a holoemitter to disguise him.  The holoemitter, when activated, changed his coloration from black and grey to white, red and blue.  Thirteen commented he looked ‘ridiculous’ when he first saw the results.  They also gave him an alias to use:  Skyfire. 

Another problem was Thirteen’s lack of exposure to the outside world.  Airfix took him on a few trips around the city to both test the emitters effectiveness and to teach Thirteen on how to behave when out in public.  The medic had a bit of difficulty with him on the first outing, as Thirteen was excited by all the new sights and sounds.  Thankfully, he was a lot calmer on the following outings. 

They were as ready as they could be. 

When the day came, Thirteen was especially nervous.  To be fair, so was Yarzon, knowing the risks they were taking.  He reminded both himself and Thirteen what they hoped to accomplish:  to start Thirteen’s integration with society and to begin undoing the Quintesson plans for this world.  That claimed the bot down, until he found out he would not be traveling with them. 

“What!?”  Thirteen cried, his winglets hiking up as far as they could go.  “But...I c-can’t do this alone!” 

“What am I, chopped scrap?” Airfix sighed, putting a hand on Thirteen’s shoulder.  “You won’t be alone: you’ll be traveling with me.” 

“Oh….”  Thirteen looked sheepish. 

“Yarzon, are you certain you want to travel alone?” Airfix asked.  “You already know there’s at least one of your kind that want you dead.” 

“My people have ‘rules’ for eliminating rivals,” Yarzon explained.  “One of which is that it is forbidden to do so out in public.  Getting caught doing so carries a death sentence.” 

“Ah, so ‘plausible deniability’ is needed,” Airfix commented, understanding.  “Being out in public would make that difficult in general.” 

“Precisely.” 

“I would still feel better if you had some protection…,” Thirteen was muttering, fiddling with his fingers.  “Or that you would use a proxy.” 

“I refuse to hide behind a proxy like so many of my brethren,” Yarzon sneered, though he realized the hypocrisy of that stance considering he _designs_ proxies.  “And I never travel without protection, don’t worry.” 

“I still worry….” 

Knowing that Thirteen cared that much about him warmed his spark.


	2. Audience

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group to go Iacon and visit Sentinel Zeta Prime.

The journey to Iacon was uneventful, at least on Yarzon’s end.  When he met up with Airfix and Thirteen after they had arrived, he found out Thirteen had acted like a sparkling again.  The young bot had kept bouncing between viewports, apparently not wanting to miss anything during the flight. It earned him a few annoyed looks from other passengers.  Couldn’t be helped, but at least his ‘Skyfire’ disguise was holding up for the extended trip so far.

“So…what now?”  Thirteen asked as he gazed at his new surroundings.  Currently they were on a little used side street, away from most prying optics.

“Now we need to get to the government plaza,” Yarzon told him.  “Unfortunately, I will need to go my own way again.” Thirteen made a whining noise.  “It will be safer that way, Thirteen,” he assured him. “I won’t be the only Quintesson there and for us to be seen together may cause suspicion.”

“That you’ll be going into the High Council building and not the Hall of Records will be suspicious as is,” Airfix pointed out.

“I got that covered.”  Yarzon activated his own holoemitter, changing his appearance to one of the judge caste Quintessons.  Thirteen made a low growl of disapproval. “It’s only until we meet up with Sentinel, Thirteen.”

“I still don’t like it,” Thirteen grumbled.

“That reminds me,” Airfix commented.  “Yarzon, what are the chances of there being Quintessons directly responsible for Thirteen’s treatment being present?”  Thirteen growled again, louder this time.

“Unless we are delivering reports and the like, science class Quints like myself rarely leave our labs, especially in person.  Chances  _ should _ be low.  That said.”  With a tentacle, he lightly poked Thirteen in the chest.  “Thirteen, I know it will be hard, but you will need to keep your cool should you see any of that have hurt you.  If things go right, you will get your chance at them eventually.”

“I’ll try…,” Thirteen responded, gritting his denta, his hands flexing and clenching.

\--

Thirteen watched Yarzon leave, a part of him wanting to stick by him, to personally ensure he was safe from harm.  To think he’d feel this way about a Quintesson! He felt a light tug on his shoulder: it was Airfix remind him they needed to start moving.  Thirteen vented a sigh and turned to follow him.

For while he was able to distract himself by looking at the new scenery, like while he was on the transport.  However, there were a fair number of Quintessons here and he kept examining each one, trying to see if knew them.  He remembered the faces of many of the ones that hurt him, but many more that were involved he only had a vague recollection.  Thirteen knew even fewer of their names and all of those were on a ‘kill list’.

He attention was diverted from his mental ‘Quintesson hunt’ when they entered the Government plaza.  “Whoa…,” he breathed, surprised by just how vast it was. Airfix was chuckling.

“A lot of first timers have that reaction,” the flier told him.  “Especially the ones from countryside.”

“Countryside?”  Thirteen echoed as they traveled into the plaza.

“Areas that are not as built-up like Iacon and Vos,” Airfix explained.  “Cities like this one are relatively new and much of our population still live in smaller communities dotted around the planet.  That is slowly changing.”

Thirteen nodded in understanding.  He started wondering what living in one of those smaller communities was like.  Surely it was different from the big city…and certainly different than being confined to a lab.  It was hard to imagine though, due to his limited experience in general.

His musings were interrupted when his optics spotted something, or rather some _ one _ .  Thirteen’s frame tensed immediately and he emitted a low hiss.  Airfix noticed. “What is it?” he asked, stopping and grabbing his shoulder.

“Pha-mok…,” Thirteen growled lowly in hate.  The Quintesson in question was a good distance away, chatting with a few others.  He had a nice scar across his face, one optic ruined. A scar that was the result of a wound Thirteen  _ gave _ him with his own claws.  He nearly succeeded in throwing him on the compression machine Pha-mok loved to use on his limbs, but he was knocked out before he could.  Thirteen felt himself start to stalk toward the Quintesson, his hands tense, claws ready.

“No, don’t!” Airfix half-cried, half-whispered, pulling him back.  “Remember what he told you.”

Thirteen barely heard him.  He wanted to finish the job he started on Pha-mok and he started pulling against Airfix’s grip.  Suddenly, his face was forced to look at the flier. “If you attack one now…it will ruin everything,” Airfix warned him, quietly.

That finally got through to him.  To attack one now, would ruin his chance at the others.  He took several deep intakes to calm himself enough to move again, in a direction  _ away _ from Pha-mok.  Thirteen still felt torqued though, so he had Airfix guide him the long way to their destination, to give him more time to calm down and hopefully avoid any more encounters….

\--

_ Meanwhile… _

Yarzon made his way to the Government plaza, taking care to keep his arm tentacles close to his frame.  Judge caste Quintessons didn’t have arm tentacles, so it would cause problems if someone felt them by accident.  Fortunately, foot traffic was light, so he had little issues.

He saw potential problem though when he arrived that plaza.  There were a number of fellow Quintesson’s here, including science caste.  Any one, or more, could have been involved with Thirteen. Yarzon had to hope Airfix would be able to keep Thirteen under control, should the young bot’s own willpower fail him.

Yarzon headed directly for the High Council building, politely returning any greetings from his brethren on the way.  As he had hoped, none of them questioned a judge going into said building. Once inside, he took the lift to Sentinel’s office.  He took a quick look around the lobby before entering: there was no one there aside from the receptionist, so he turned off his holoemitter.

“Greetings,” the receptionist greeted when he approached.  “Name please.”

“Yarzon,” Yarzon replied.  “I have an appointment, however there are two others’ in my party that should be arriving shortly.”

The receptionist looked at her console for a moment.  “Ah, yes. With Airfix and Skyfire. When they arrive I’ll let Sentinel know you are here.”

“Thank you.”

Now came the waiting, hoping, Airfix and Thirteen arrived without incident.  It was nearly a half-breem before they did. “Sorry we are late,” Airfix sighed when they came in.  “Had a close call.”

Yarzon could tell just by looking at Thirteen.  The young bot was tense, winglets flicking in agitation, and his expression still carried the faint hint of a scowl.  No doubt he  _ did _ see some familiar faces on the way.  “Calm down,” Yarzon told him, placing a tentacle on his arm.  “You’ll need a calm mind for the meeting.”

Thirteen took a deep intake and nodded, his frame visibly relaxing a bit.   He wouldn’t get much time to relax and calm his nerves, however.

“Sentinel will see you know,” the receptionist announced.

Yarzon took a deep breath to steady his own nerves:  he noted Airfix was doing the same, while Thirteen just looked apprehensive.  “Let’s go,” he said, as he gently took Thirteen by the arm briefly to encourage him to follow them in, as he could tell Thirteen was hesitant.

He had never been here before, but he could tell the office they entered was definitely befitting of a bot of Sentinel’s status.  The floor and walls were highly polished, décor elegant and of high quality. Sentinel himself posed an impressive figure: he was as tall as Airfix, blue and gold frame a bulker build made for strength and power.  Yarzon saw Thirteen start to shrink away at his presence and he placed a reassuring tentacle on his back.

“Sentinel,” Yarzon began with a bow.  “Thank you for seeing us.”

“I will be blunt, Yarzon,” Sentinel commented, his arms folded across his chest.  “I almost refused to see you, considering the vagueness of your request. Not to mention, I don’t usually meet with Quintessons of your caste.”

“The vagueness was due to a matter of security, Sentinel,” Yarzon explained.  “What we have to discuss deals with the future of your planet and your people.”

“Oh?  Then why is not one of high ranking members of the Hierarchy before me?”

“Because they do  _ not _ want this revealed, I assure you,” Yarzon stated with a faint growl.  “My people are not the generous benefactors they would have you believe them to be.  Their ultimate goal, is the strip your people of your free will and turn you all into slaves.”

Sentinel’s optics widened in surprise, then narrowed as his expression hardened.  “That is a serious accusation, Yarzon,” he stated. “One that flies in the face of what your people have done for us.”

“It is all part of a grander scheme, Sentinel,” Yarzon insisted.  “One they have carried out successfully many times in the past…all ones I failed to stop.”  He cast his optics to the floor in shame for a moment before meeting Sentinel’s optics once more.  “But now I see an opportunity to prevent it from happening again.”

“But you need proof that is their plan at all,” Sentinel reminded him.

“That is true, which I, sadly, do not have at the present, due to my people’s own misgivings about me.  However, I can hopefully prove today that my people have nothing but ill intentions.” On that note, he deactivated Thirteen’s holoemitter, revealing his true colors.  “This is Thirteen, a bot that, until recently, has only seen the inside of a Quintesson lab.”

Now curious, Sentinel stepped closer.  Thirteen visibly cowered in his presence, before finally bolting to hide behind Airfix.  “)Don’t hurt me!(“ he blabbered in Quintesson.

“It’s alright, Thirteen,” Airfix told him as he encouraged him out from behind him.  “He won’t hurt you.”

“A skittish one,” Sentient commented.  “Does he understand us?”

“He knows both Cybertronian and Quintesson fluently,” Yarzon assured him.  “Though the former we had to teach him fully, as he knew none of it when he first came into my care.”

“And how did he come into your care, Yarzon?” Sentinel asked, his arms across his chest once more.  After Yarzon told him the story, he rubbed his chin a moment. “And what happened to him before then?”

“He was literally shipped to me, with the intent to have him kill me,” Yarzon admitted.  “As for what happened before...that, we do not know, as he has yet to tell us, due to how traumatic it was.”

“Then perhaps it is time he does.”  They all looked at Thirteen expectantly.

Thirteen still looked intimated by the Sentinel’s presence.  Both Yarzon and Airfix had to put a comforting tentacle/hand on him to reassure him.  “You don’t have to tell him everything if you are not ready to right now,” Airfix told him.

“But please do try to give him an idea of what you have been through,” Yarzon added.  “Remember what this is all for.”

Thirteen nodded nervously and took a shaky step forward.  He was still quiet for a good klik, his optics looking at the floor, before he vented a long breath and looked up at Sentinel.  After a few more nanos, he finally started to speak.

“The first thing I remember when I onlined for the first time was confusion,” Thirteen began.  “I felt like I didn’t belong. Then I was given a body, gained sight, sound and touch…but it felt wrong.  I panicked…attacking what was around me. Then there was a lot of pain, which was followed by darkness.”

Thirteen visibly shuddered a moment before continuing.  “I onlined again in different body. This one felt wrong as well, but I could do nothing…I was restrained.  Quintesson’s where all around me, poking…scanning. Then more pain as their ‘inspection’ became more invasive, violent.  One got careless and I got free, I didn’t understand why they were hurting me, but I hated it…I wanted to hurt them in turn, so I did.  Then darkness claimed me again.”

Airfix mouth was starting to hang open, and, to be honest, so was Yarzon’s.  Even Sentinel was starting to show signs of shock.

“Then I was online again…this time in this body.”  Thirteen touched his chest. “It felt right, but the Quintessons did not stop the pain.  Again, they kept me restrained, sent pain through my ports…tested chemicals, weapons and more on me.  All the while I slowly learned their language, started to understand what they were doing to me. I hated it.  I broke free and attacked them every chance I got. Each time I was knocked into stasis…and awakened someplace new, but with more pain…more torture coming.  One of the worse was when Bo-Yar put a spark shield on me…that pain lasted for many cycles, yet they kept testing on me even then. No pity…no remorse…I was nothing but a toy to them to take apart and put back together again.”

“By the Allspark…,” Airfix vented, astonished.

“And through all that, your spark survived?” Sentinel asked.  “How?”

Thirteen gave him a helpless shrug.  “I know not how my spark survived,” he replied.  “What I do know, is that when Rha-ka found out I understood them, he freaked.  He…switched out my datacore for a different one…a drone one. I found myself no longer able to function properly, fell into an endless recharge cycle.  When I finally woke up again, I was with Yarzon. I thought he would be like the other’s, but he was not…he treated me with kindness…respect. Allowed me to  _ choose _ .  It was through him I finally learned what I was…and what his people plan to do to us all.  I-I do not want anyone else to suffer as I did. I want to prevent it! And…” His hands clenched into fists.  “I want them to pay for what they did to me!”

The last sentence was said with such bitterness and hatred that Sentinel looked like he almost took a step back.  Sentinel regained his composure quickly and was in deep thought for a moment. “Is there any physical evidence to support his claims?” he finally asked.

“There is,” Airfix confirmed, take a few steps forward to hand him a datapad.  “I have conducted a full examination on Thirteen. The results…should speak for itself.”

There was a moment of silence as Sentient read the datapads contents.  His optics visibly widened as he read. “By the AllSpark,” he breathed.  “I am no medical expert, but even I can see you have been through more than any bot should.”  A pause, then he looked at Airfix as he asked. “However, you are certain he is Cybertronian?”

Yarzon felt himself stiffen briefly, having not expected Sentinel to pick up on that possibility.  Thirteen had stiffened himself in surprise and was now looking between them, an expression of slight panic on his face.  “But…I am Cybertronian…right?” he asked.

“His biology matches that of our people,” Airfix replied.  “Including the existence of a T-Cog and spark. I see no indication that he’s  _ not _ Cybertronian.”

“I ask, as the latest census matches what the Keepers of the Well reported from the last spark shower.”

Yarzon and Airfix gave each other concerned glances:  Thirteen just looked confused. “We have noticed that he doesn’t seem to exist in a public sense.  It appears when we are done here a trip to the Hall of Records will be needed,” Yarzon stated, the tip of a tentacle curled against his chin.  “To see if he is on the books in some form.”

“A wise idea,” Sentinel affirmed.  “While I hope he is one of the missing that have been reported in recent vorns, his story makes me doubt it, as it seems he was in captivity from the time he was just a spark.”

“Unless his spark has somehow been wiped clean of memory,” Yarzon suggested grimly.  “I wouldn’t put it past my brethren to find a way to do so.”

“A dire implication if that is so,” Airfix muttered.

Sentinel was nodding in agreement, then his expression hardened once more.  “However, while his story is tragic, I have no doubt the Hierarchy will deny their people are responsible.”

“They would,” Yarzon confirmed sadly.  “They would even go as far as to claim it was a complete fabrication…then myself, Thirteen and even Airfix will be ‘disappeared’, to ensure the truth never comes to full light.”

“I don’t wanna disappear,” Thirteen whined, apparently understanding what he meant by that.  “I just started learning how life is supposed to be….”

“With that said, what is the point of this meeting if nothing can come of it?”  Sentinel asked.

“The point is for it to serve as a warning that my people are  _ not _ what they seem,” Yarzon explained.  “Their web of lies and deceit is thick and complicated…and Thirteen is but one loose thread.  One I intend to use to unravel and expose them for the black sparked beings they really are. I just need to figure out  _ how. _ ”

Sentinel made a thoughtful sound, his hand rubbing his chin again.  Then he looked at Thirteen. “How fast are you?”

“Eh?”  Thirteen looked confused.

“He is pretty fast, at least in root mode,” Airfix stated.  “He disappeared on me a couple of times rather easily when I look away for just a nano.”

Thirteen looked a bit sheepish.  “Sorry…so many new things to look at…,” he muttered.

“And he is pretty agile,” Yarzon added.  “From what I have witnessed.”

“Can you transform?” Sentinel then asked, looking at Thirteen.

“Transform?”  Thirteen echoed.  “That thing where I’ve seen people change their bodies into something else?”  Sentinel nodded, his expression unreadable. “I haven’t tried to be honest. I know how to use my subspace though.”  At that, he brought out the puzzle box Yarzon told him he could keep.

“So, you’ve never been ‘blessed’ with the gift of transformation by the Quintessons?”

At that Thirteen growled.  “The only thing I’ve been ‘blessed’ with is pain and suffering by them!” he snapped.

“’Blessed’….bah…,” Yarzon grumbled.  “My people are not the miracle workers they claim to be.  It’s all a charlatan trick they’ve been using to win you over.”

Sentinel’s optics narrowed as he took this in, rubbing his chin in thought.  “Then let’s test that theory. Airfix, can you explain to him what transformation is?”

Airfix nodded and did so, Thirteen listening with great interest.  It was something Yarzon wished they had to thought of before, but perhaps that they didn’t was a good thing.  Proving that the Quintessons had nothing to do with their T-Cog or transformation abilities would be a blow to the hold they had over them.

“Alright, Thirteen, give it a shot,” Airfix told him once he was done.  They all stepped away to give Thirteen room.

“I don’t know what I’ll be…,” Thirteen muttered, putting the puzzle box away and taking on an expression of concentration.  They heard the faint whirl of gears and servos starting up, but falling silent after only a nano. Nothing physically changed on him, not even a temporary shifting of plates.

That…wasn’t good.


	3. Plots

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thirteen chooses a new name and seeks help for his problem...

Thirteen felt numb, just numb and in shock.  Nothing had happened. He tried again, still nothing happened.  His winglets started to tremble as despair started to set in. 

“Why can’t I transform?” he whined, trying for a third time, but still nothing.

Did it have to do with Sentinel’s question earlier about being Cybertronian?  Could that be why? That he wasn’t a real Cybertronian? Beside him, Yarzon and Airfix were looking confused and concerned, while Sentinel was unreadable.  

“Why?” he demanded.  “Why can’t I transform?  Is there something I’m doing wrong?  Am I…am I….” His optics started to cloud.

“Easy, Thirteen,” Airfix soothed, putting a hand on his shoulder.  “There could be a number of reasons why you can’t transform. Such as damage to your T-Cog I can’t see due to my access rating.”

“Can’t see!?” Thirteen cried.  “But you’re a  _ medic _ !”

“An emergency physician,” Airfix corrected.  “I’m trained to fix critical and life-threatening injuries.  Diagnosing T-Cog problems is not included in that. Only a fully trained medic would have that knowledge.”

“Then it would appear you would need to see such a medic,” Sentinel stated. “Preferably before you go to the Hall of Records.  Before you do so, I would like to discuss a couple other things with you.”

“What would that be, Sentinel?” Yarzon asked.

“Are you aware of the massive construction projects your people are building?” Sentinel asked.

“I do, but before you ask what they are for, I regretfully must inform you that I am just as clueless as to their purpose as you likely are.”

Sentinel rubbed his chin again.  “Then perhaps you can provide the means to find out.”  Yarzon was tilting to one side, curious. “Your language codex.”

Yarzon squawked, his tentacles flaring, but quickly calmed.  “That I can give, Sentinel, however…my people know I am in this city and if they find out your people suddenly understand us….”

Sentinel was holding up a hand.  “Do not worry, Yarzon,” he said. “I will not jeopardize your life if I can avoid it.  My request goes in line with a suggestion I have for Thirteen’s future.” At that Thirteen perked up, wondering what Sentinel was thinking.  “You are planning on reintegrating him into society, correct?” They nodded. “Then he will need a purpose, a job. I would suggest Datarunner.”

“Of course!” Yarzon’s tentacles starting twisting in excitement. “My people often employ them to transfer sensitive information they don’t trust sending over the datanet.  If Thirteen can become one, he’ll be able get the evidence we need just by virtue of doing his job!”

“But wouldn’t such data be heavily encrypted?” Airfix countered.

“I’m a  _ Quintesson _ …,” Yarzon replied, looking a little insulted.  “I would have the  _ means _ to  _ un _ encrypt it.  However, I would have to make some modifications to Thirteen’s hardware so he could handle it.”

“Modifications?”  Thirteen muttered, looking at Yarzon questioningly.  He trusted the Quintesson, but the idea of being ‘modified’ was a bit frightening.

“You’ll need a more powerful processor, for one,” Yarzon explained.  “And perhaps a datacore upgrade, space wise. Quintesson encryption software is a resource hog.”

“Let’s not get ahead of yourselves,” Sentinel spoke up. “It would be for naught if his natural alt mode is not suitable for such a job. And.” He held up a finger.  “You will still need to confirm whether or not he exists in the census.”

The excitement that had been building between them was immediately dampened.  

“Reasonable points of concern, Sentinel,” Yarzon conceded.  “But what if he doesn’t exist in the census at all?”

“Then the census would have to be ‘corrected’,” Sentinel replied, a rare smirk on his face.  “After all, it’s hard to deny someone exists when they are standing right in front of you.” He gestured toward Thirteen.  “Either way, he will need a proper name.”

“I have a name,” Thirteen stated, his expression one of determination.  “But I will not reveal it until the  _ stars _ hear the Quintesson’s  _ screams _ as we kick their afts off our world.”  Yarzon was looking at him quizzically.

“Then you’ll need to choose a different one for the time being,” Sentinel stated, looking amused.

“Nightfire,” Thirteen stated almost immediately.

“Not ‘Skyfire’?” Airfix asked.

“’Skyfire’ doesn’t match this coloration,” he explained, tapping  his chest. “Though I’ll use ‘Skyfire’ when disguised.”

“A good idea,” Yarzon stated, before looking at Sentinel.  “We will take your suggestion and find a medic that can help with his transformation problem first, Sentinel.”

“Fortunately, I  _ do _ know someone here in Iacon that should be able help,” Airfix spoke up.  “My friend, Ratchet, he has a clinic here in Iacon.” Sentinel was nodding in approval. 

“Sentinel, what if his alt-mode is not suitable for datarunner?” Yarzon asked.

“I already have other options in mind should that be the case, Yarzon,” Sentinel admitted.  “Don’t worry about reporting back to me, as I feel it is best we do not meet again for some time.”

“How shall we keep you updated then?” Yarzon asked.

“I have optics and audios in many places, my friend.”

Airfix seemed to immediately get what he was talking about.  “Soundwave,” he stated.

At that Sentinel just smirked. 

\--

After the trio left, Sentinel sat back down at his desk.  “Did you get all that, Ravage?” he asked.

A black feliniod slipped out of its hiding place under his desk and jumped onto it, purring in acknowledgement.  “Good,” Sentinel said as he scratched it behind the audios. “Let Soundwave know I want ‘Nightfire’ and Yarzon to be watched.  When the time is right, we will get what we need from them.”

Ravage nodded and bounded off, slipping through a window.

Sentinel leaned back in his chair, chuckling.   _ A clever way to reveal your true name, young bot.  You will be one to watch. _

\--

The clinic was thankfully close by, though they still used their disguises and took separate paths.  They didn’t take off the disguises until they were certain it was safe to do so once they were inside.

“Ratchet!”  Airfix called out once they spotted the bot they wanted to see.  “How are you doing, old friend?”

“Airfix?”  the white and orange bot replied, looking surprised at first, but then developed a huge smile.  “He-hey! How ya doing?” The two bots clapped each other on the shoulder. “Didn’t think I’d see you back here in Iacon!”

“Had business here,” Airfix stated.  “So, I’m not staying long.”

“A pity,” Ratchet lamented.  “How’s Vos?”

“Growing!”  Airfix laughed.  “If it keeps it up, it will be nearly as big as Iacon in a few vorns.”

“Ha! We’ll see!” Ratchet then leveled his gaze at Yarzon and Thirteen.  “Considering your choice of company, I have a feeling your visit isn’t a social call.”

“Unfortunately, no,” Airfix sighed.  “Ratchet, this is Yarzon and Nightfire.  Nightfire is having trouble transforming for the first time and we need to know what his alt-mode is to see if he is suitable to be a datarunner.”

“Weh-ell now.” Ratchet looked Nightfire up and down.  “Just from looking at him he seems to be a fast frame type, which are usually suitable for such job.  You haven’t been able to transform at all?”

“I’ve tried.  Nothing happens,” Nightfire confirmed with a shake of his head.

“I’ve examined his T-Cog and it appears fully functional,” Airfix stated.  “He can use his subspace, but not transform.” To prove the former, Nightfire pulled out the puzzle box out of his subspace for a moment, before putting it back again.

Ratchet folded his arms, one hand on his chin.  “Could be a glitch in the T-Cog, a coding error….”  He appeared to be mulling over a few other possibilities before speaking again.  “You came to the right bot, come on over to the examination room and I’ll take a look.”

They followed Ratchet into one of the open examination rooms, where Nightfire climbed onto the medical berth without any prompting.  Ratchet performed a scan of the area where his T-Cog rested. “Hmm, your conclusion is correct, Airfix,” Ratchet stated. “There’s nothing wrong with his T-Cog.”

“Good to have a colleague confirm I didn’t miss something,” Airfix beamed.

“Time to run a few other tests to determine the problem,” Ratchet stated as he gestured for Nightfire to get off the berth before pushing it against the wall.  He then started pulling cables from equipment and attaching them to Nightfire. As he did so, Nightfire became visibly nervous and tense, his optics starting to dart about.

“Ratchet, not to question your capabilities,” Yarzon spoke up.  “But are all those necessary?”

“It is if I am to get a proper reading, why?”  The medic was starting to reach around the back Nightfire’s head to attach something there.

Airfix apparently noticed what Yarzon did.  “Because Nightfire is a victim of-“ Too late, the moment Nightfire felt him around that port, he freaked…. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think we all know what's going to be said next. >:D
> 
> Also If ya figure out who Nightfire is, please don't spoil it for other's in the comments. :)


	4. Success

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The cause of Nightfire's transformation problem is discovered.

Nightfire knew Ratchet wasn’t going to hurt him, but he was unable to control his reaction.  He had to get away, away from a potential source of pain.

“)Not that port!(“ Nightfire screeched as he bolted, various cables ripping off or simply snapping.  A couple of machines went crashing to the floor. He hid behind Yarzon, a couple of broken off cables hanging from their respective ports as he trembled.

“Nightfire!” Ratchet exclaimed as he looked at the damage.  “I needed those!” Nightfire cringed at his tone.

“Sorry, Ratchet,” Yarzon apologized.  Nightfire felt him start stroking his back in a calming gesture.  He immediately started to relax again. “We should have mentioned from the onset that he was a victim of torture and abuse.”

“That information  _ would _ have been nice to know before hand,” Ratchet grumbled as he cleaned up the mess, Airfix helping him. “Now I may not be able to run all the tests I need.”

“Lucky for you I always keep my little buddy in my subspace,” Airfix commented as he brought out said ‘buddy’.  A while spherical shaped drone that floated quietly next to him. Yarzon was chuckling lightly.

“What is that?” Ratchet asked, poking it with a finger.

“Medical drone,” Airfix replied.  “One of Yarzon’s designs. Has all the diagnostic software in one small neat package and can make medical grade energon on the fly.  Great for emergency calls. Only problem is that it’s a pain to upgrade the software.”

“An issue I am still working on resolving for my future models,” Yarzon admitted with a tentacle styled shrug.  “This one does have the latest software upgrades: I saw to it personally during one of his visits.”

“Huh.”  Ratchet gave the drone another poke.  “Guess I’ll give it a shot.”

“Considering his past, Nightfire will likely be more comfortable with this anyway,” Airfix said as he prompted the drone to reveal its mini console so he could input some commands.  Seconds later, it extended several monitoring cables. “Ratchet, I’ll need you to put in your access code, so I have full access.”

“Alright.”  Ratchet briefly took over at the drone and did so.  The drone beeped in confirmation of the codes acceptance.

By then, Nightfire had calmed down enough to where Yarzon was able to coax him back into the center of the room.  “Not that port…,” he whimpered, looking at Ratchet warily.

“We’ll need access to both the datacore and sensor net ports,” Ratchet stated.  “Which one is he sensitive about?”

“The sensor net one,” Yarzon replied.  “However, the one connected to the spark chamber may not be ‘tainted’ for him.”  He looked at Nightfire. “Nightfire, have they hurt you through the port here?” He gently placed the tip of his tentacle where the access hatch to said port lay.

Nightfire thought back, trying to remember all the ports they had tortured him though.  Surprisingly, he didn’t remember them using that port. “No,” he replied softly with a shake of his head.

“We may get some interference from his spark, but we can account for that,” Ratchet muttered as he and Airfix started attaching the cables. 

When the datacore port was next, Airfix gave the plug to Nightfire.  “Put his in your datacore port please.” Nightfire nodded and plugged it in.

“Alright, what test do you want to run first?” Airfix asked, back at the drone.

“I’m going have him attempt to transform, so the transformation one,” Ratchet replied.

“Alright.”  After Airfix selected it, the drone beeped it was ready.  “All set.”

“OK, Nightfire,” Ratchet said as they all stepped back.  “Try to transform for us.”

Nightfire nodded and made the attempt.  Like the previous three times in Sentinel’s office, nothing happened.  On the drone’s screen, a couple of red messages popped up.

“Obstruction detected…that one we expected,” Airfix muttered, clearing the message, then started reading the other.  “Huh…profile conflict?” Ratchet took his place at the drone at that point.

“Multiple transformation profiles detected, not compatible with T-Cog.  Weh-ell now….,” Ratchet said, surprised. “I’ve only read about this, never seen it for myself.  No wonder he can’t transform: his T-Cog doesn’t know what profile to use!”

“I didn’t think it was possible for one of your kind to have more than one alt-mode,” Yarzon commented.

“Normally, we don’t, but there is the odd bot that has two alt-modes,” Ratchet explained.  “However, they have a specialized T-Cog. Nightfire’s standard one isn’t designed for it. The question, is how he gained more than one transformation profile.”

“It is possible it is related to his past abuse,” Yarzon stated grimly.  “He recently revealed to us that this is his third frame.” Nightfire nodded in confirmation.

Ratchet sputtered a bit in shock.  “By the AllSpark…you’ve lost entire frames?”  Nightfire nodded. “Do you remember what frames those were?”

“First one I don’t remember at all, didn’t stay long enough in it,” Nightfire replied softly.  “Second one I was in longer, it was…short…but bulky and slow. Neither felt right.”

“And this one ‘feels right’?”

“Yes.”

“And you are certain your spark was physically transferred from one frame to another?”  Ratchet pressed. “And that you weren’t just simply reformatted?”

“From what those slaggers did to me…there was little left to  _ reformat _ ,” Nightfire responded with a growl, his demeanor turning sour.

“Primus….” Ratchet visibly shuddered before regaining his composer.  “Well, at least we discovered the source of your transformation problem.  Should be a simple matter of deleting the extra profiles. Is the drone able to make modifications to coding?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Yarzon replied.  “This model is only designed for aiding in diagnosing problems and simple repairs.”

“It would probably not be a good idea to have a portable coding modifier like this anyway.  The mischief people could cause….” Airfix stated.

“A good point.  Fortunately, the device needed for this task is one Nightfire here didn’t damage,”  Ratchet stated as he removed the cables from Nightfire. Nightfire flinched and looked away in embarrassment. 

Once all the cables were unplugged, Airfix had the drone retract them, but he kept the drone out just in case.  Ratchet meanwhile was pulling the berth back out and had Nightfire sit on it. Then he pulled a single machine up close. He plugged one cable into the Nightfire’s medical access port and turned it on.

After a short boot up sequence finished, Ratchet searched for and found the transformation profiles.  “Interesting,” the medic commented. “I see two profiles: bike and seeker. However, it appears I am unable to delete either of them:  they must be hardcoded. I should be able to make one a priority over the other, however.”

“The question is:  which one?” Yarzon queried.  “Both sound suitable for a data runner.”

“The issue, is that we won’t know how suitable until he transforms into one or the other,” Ratchet pointed out.  “Unfortunately, he may only have one chance: if the one he chooses turns out to be a flop, he likely won’t be able to try the other profile without the aid of a reformat.”

“In that case…I like the idea of flying…,” Nightfire spoke up.  He got a slight taste for it on the transport shuttle and found he liked the idea of being up high, going where he pleased.

“Hold on, before you make your decision let’s look at all the factors we  _ do _ know,” Ratchet cautioned, one hand up.  “First off, I can tell you’ll be a bit big for a bike…yet small for a seeker and that’s after considering average mass shifting and displacement capabilities.”

“Hmm, which could indicate a powerful bike, but not very agile…and a seeker that is slower than usual, but is agile,” Airfix pondered.

“Exactly.  Another factor to consider is  _ why _ he wants to be a data runner.”  Ratchet looked at Nightfire.

Nightfire looked between Yarzon and Airfix, not wanting to say anything without their permission.  They looked at each other in silent consideration for a moment before both nodded. “To gather evidence that will expose those that are not who they seem to be,” Nightfire replied.

“Oooh, so a covert op thing.”  All three nodded. “You have permission for such a mission?”

“The highest possible,” Yarzon replied.

“Very well then.”  Ratchet was quiet a moment.  “In that case, I would  _ personally _ suggest trying bike.”

“Wouldn’t a flier have a wider range?” Airfix asked.

“They would, but they are also very common in that role for that reason,” Ratchet pointed out.  “Which brings up a couple of issues. One is that jobs would be taken quickly, reducing the chances of him getting one with the information you need to collect.  Second, fliers tend to be a bit full of themselves, which can be a turn off to clients.”

“It’s mainly the ‘seeker’ variety that are like that…thank you very much…,” Airfix grumbled, folding his arms, looking insulted.

“My point is that a humbler form would increase his chances of getting the information you seek.”

“Both valid points, Ratchet,” Yarzon conceded. “Ultimately, however, the decision lies with Nightfire.”

“I really would like to fly…but….”  Nightfire thought a moment. Yes, flight would be nice, but, if Ratchet was right about job access, a bike would be better.  “If I change my mind…or when my mission is done…what do I need to do to get this ‘reformat’ done?”

“You would need access to the transfiguration machine, which only one exists at present:  it’s in the Hall of Science.”

“Scrap…that place requires like…fifty permission forms to be filled out for a non-scientist to get in to even take a look around,” Airfix grumbled.

“Why so restrictive?” Yarzon asked.

“Because a lot of the stuff in there is experimental…and potentially dangerous,” Ratchet replied.  “The transfiguration machine itself is safe, but the Council put it in there to discourage abuse of it.  When it first came out…so many bots came using it to change little things like their color scheme…vain slaggers.”

“Understandable, in my opinion,” Airfix commanded.  “Too many bots not happy with what they have.”

“And it would allow me to switch between profiles?” Nightfire asked.

“In theory it should.  However, I’ve never seen two profiles in a frame that only has a standard T-Cog before,” Ratchet replied.  “There’s no guarantee it will work.”

“And there’s no way to use both?”

Ratchet thought a moment.  “It would probably require a modification to your T-Cog, which I wouldn’t recommend.  We don’t want to tamper with the ‘Gifts of the Galactic Masters’.” He glanced at Yarzon as he said that.  Nightfire, due to his extended ‘personal’ time with Quintessons, both good and bad, caught the subtle looking of disgust on his face that Ratchet didn’t.  However, he also caught the slight tone of sarcasm in Ratchet’s voice: it seemed he wasn’t too keen on the Quintessons either. 

 

“So, which will it be, Nightfire?” Ratchet asked.  “Bike or seeker?”

Nightfire sighed, mulling it over.  He’d like to fly, but that would decrease the chances of him getting the right data they needed to use against the Quintessons.  On the other hand, bike many allow him to get that data, with the possible cost of never being allowed to fly should a reformat not work.   _ My people, over my desires. _  “I will go bike,” he replied.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Alright then.”  Ratchet turned back to the machine and typed a few commands.  “It is done.” He then unplugged him from the machine. “Follow me, I know a place where you’ll have room to test it out.”

They followed Ratchet to what turned out to be shipment receiving area at the back of the clinic.  There was no one else around, so neither Yarzon or Nightfire felt the need to turn on their holoemitters.  It would have caused uncomfortable questions from Ratchet anyway.

“Alright, Nightfire,” Ratchet said, gesturing in front of him.  “Give it a shot.”

Nightfire took an intake and stepped forward a few paces to get some distance from the group.  A part of him was afraid nothing would happen again, but he tried anyway. This time, something  _ did _ happen.

He felt his plates shift, his form rearranging into a new shape.  It was odd, yet fantastic feeling. After nearly a half-klik, he was in the sleek form of a hoverbike.  He heard his friends and Ratchet cheering at his accomplishment.

“Well now,” Ratchet was commenting.  “That turned out smaller than I was expecting…and looks both fast and agile.  Seems you lucked out.”

“Only one way to find out for sure,” Nightfire said smugly.  He then took off, feeling a sense of freedom he had never experienced before.

\--

Yarzon and the rest of the group looked at the cloud of dust were Nightfire  _ used _ to be. “By Quintessa…that was fast.,” he muttered.

“Primus…I better keep an optic on him,” Airfix groaned as he gave himself room to transform into his own alt-mode and took off.

“At least he choose the bike…,” Ratchet was commenting as they watched Airfix fly off.  “If he had gone seeker, poor Airfix wouldn’t stand a chance of keeping up I suspect….”

Yarzon nodded with agreement.

Thankfully, Nightfire hadn’t gone far:  the excited bot was just testing the limits of his new alt-mode for a bit before returning on his own.  Once he and Airfix were back, they gave their thanks and goodbyes to Ratchet and left the clinic. After reactivating their disguises, they left the building and started on their way to the Hall of Records, Yarzon taking a different path like before.  This time though, halfway there while passing through an alley, Yarzon deactivated his disguise, as it would not be needed. His brethren won’t think twice about him going to his current destination, after all. He did get some glares from the few brethren that saw him, but otherwise he made it to the Hall of Records without incident.  Airfix and Nightfire were waiting for him just inside.

“You can drop the disguise here, Nightfire,” Yarzon informed him.  “You won’t find any of my people in here.”

“Why?” Nightfire asked as he do so.

“Because we are notoriously lazy when it comes to keeping records,” Yarzon explained as he guided them deeper into the complex.  “In part due to not wanting to share our secrets with our rivals. It’s a wonder we became as advanced as we have.”

“And once again, you are the exception to every rule,” Airfix commented, prompting a chuckle from him.

“Halt!”  a rather large blue, red and white bot commanded, blocking their path.  “The Hall of Records is not open to the public!”

“I have sensitive data to deposit here, Ultra Magnus,” Yarzon stated, holding up his travel satchel.  “And other business to conduit.”

“You are welcome, Yarzon,” Ultra Magnus stated.  “But these two….” He looked down at Airfix and Nightfire.

“It is alright, Ultra Magnus,” a new voice called out.  From behind him stepped out an even larger purple bot. “Sentinel called ahead to inform me of their coming.”

“Very well, sir,” Ultra Magnus said as he stepped to the side to let them pass.

“Alpha Trion,” Yarzon greeted with a smile.  “Good to see you again.”

“Likewise, Yarzon,”  the Master Archivist replied, before gesturing for them to follow him.

“)What is this…feeling around him?(“  Nightfire muttered in Quintesson as they followed.  “)I don’t…recognize this feeling.(“

_ What is he talking about? _  Yarzon found it odd and curious on what Nightfire was talking about.  Did he have an ability none of them knew about?

“Oh, so one of your friends knows Quintesson?” Alpha Trion commented, breaking his line of thought.  Nightfire stiffened with apparent embarrassment.

“It is his first proper language,” Yarzon explained as they entered the main chamber of the building.  Above them now lay many levels, a multitude of lifts available to take the workers and the rare visitor, to them.  Nightfire was gaping with awe. “Due to, unusual circumstances with his early life.”

At this, Alpha Trion stopped and faced them. “So, I take it this young bot is the subject Sentinel spoke of in his rather vague message to me.”

“It would be indeed,” Yarzon confirmed.  “We need to see if he exists in the census. There’s a chance he does not.”

“Hmm, must be quite unusual circumstances if that is the case,” Alpha Trion stated, then he looked at Nightfire.  “Do you have a creation date?”

“No…,” Nightfire replied.  “Not an exact one. I’ve…lost a couple of frames since my creation.”

The Master Archivist’s optics widened slightly at this.  “I see,” he replied simply. “What you have would be a starting point, young one.  Orion will be able to assist you in your search.” He gestured toward a station, where a red and blue bot was sitting, whom was surrounded by a number of screens.

Nightfire was looking in that direction, but seemed hesitant to move.

“It’s alright,” Yarzon assured him.  “Orion probably wouldn’t even harm a scraplet.”

“What’s a scraplet?” Nightfire asked, surprising them all.

“Something you don’t want to meet…especially in swarms,” Airfix sighed before putting a hand on Nightfire’s shoulder and pushing him along.  “Come on, I’ll help you with this.”

“What is that young bot’s story,” Alpha Trion asked as they watched the two converse with Orion.

“A tragic one,” Yarzon sighed as he gave the Master Archivist a basic version of Nightfire’s story.  By the time he was done, Alpha Trion was frowning.

“I can see why you believe he may not in the census,” he stated, his tone one of pity.  “However, our records match what the Keeper’s have been reporting the last few spark showers.”

“A fact Sentinel told us himself,” Yarzon conceded.  “If he is not in the census, that could only mean two things.  Either a mistake was made or his… _ unique _ past has made it next to impossible to find his real identity.”

“There is another possibility, Yarzon,” Alpha Trion added, his tone grim. “That he is not from the Well.  Something that is unheard of since the Well first ignited.”

Yarzon recoiled, remembering how he and Airfix thought of it themselves.  That another thought of it as well did not instill him with hope. “But, Airfix stated that he found no indication that he’s  _ not _ Cybertronian.”  Yarzon didn’t want to think of Nightfire as anything but.  For that to be true would destroy what identity Nightfire had and he wasn’t sure how the young bot would handle it.  Probably not very well.

“Just because current evidence found doesn’t support a possibility doesn’t mean it still isn’t a possibility.”

“That is true…,”  Yarzon conceded, though didn’t like it at all.   _ Please be in the census…please. _

“Alpha Trion,” Orion was calling.  “A moment, please.”

_ Oh no. _  Yarzon stiffened a bit as he followed the Master Archivist over to Orion’s station.

“What is the matter, Orion?” Alpha Trion asked.

“I have searched every sparks shower, using coloration, frame type and alias, but I have failed to find this young bot in our records,” Orion reported.  “Am I doing something wrong?” Yarzon looked over at Airfix and Nightfire: Airfix looked concerned, while Nightfire looked both concerned and confused.

“No, Orion,” Alpha Trion assured him. “It simply means we lack the proper information to find him due to unusual circumstances.  The best thing we can do is to create a new entry for him.”

“Understood.”  Orion switched screens and brought up a new entry form. 

“)Nightfire,(“ Yarzon asked in Quintesson quietly.  “)You said you had a real name, did you give it to Orion for the search?(“

“)I’ve told it to no one,(“ Nightfire replied.  “)So it wouldn’t be in there anyway.(“ A reasonable conclusion, Yarzon decided.

Orion then started asking Nightfire questions.  To Yarzon’s surprise, Nightfire was responding in Quintesson and Orion seemed to understand it.

“He knows Quintesson?” Yarzon asked, looking at Alpha Trion.

“Not nearly as well as your young friend here, but enough for this.” Alpha Trion responded.

“They’ve been talking to each other in it almost since we started,” Airfix grumbled irritably.  “Can’t help him through it if I can’t understand what they are saying!”

From the smirk on both Nightfire and Orion’s faces, it seemed they were doing it on purpose at this point.  Yarzon shook his head with a sigh, though he was smiling. Nightfire was acting a lot more casual and relaxed:  he seemed to be very comfortable around Orion. Not too surprising, as he knew Orion to be a very friendly and compassionate bot that got along well with everyone.

There was a bit of a concern that Orion understood his earlier question to Nightfire about his real name.  However, it didn’t come up at all in the questions Orion was asking. Either the data clerk didn’t hear it, understand it or he was wise enough not to insist on it.  It seemed to be the former, as Nightfire had to switch to Cybertronian a few times to ensure Orion understood his answer.

“That’s all I need,” Orion announced after a few kliks.  “If there are any updates, please let us know.”

“I will, thank you,” Nightfire acknowledged before stepping away from the counter.  “All done.”

“So, you’re done driving me up the wall with Quintesson? Airfix asked, his arms across his chest.

“For now,” Nightfire was flashing him a smirk.

“Ugh…you’re being a brat,” Airfix groaned, to which Nightfire chuckled.

Once Yarzon finally handed over his blueprints, their business was technically concluded.  They did linger a bit to discuss the Nightfire’s potential future with Alpha Trion. He agreed with Sentinel that a data runner would be the best option.

After they said their thanks and farewells, their business in the Hall of Records, and Iacon itself, was concluded. 

It was time to return home.

\--

In his private office, Alpha Trion reflected on what he had learned today.  He glanced at the Covenant of the Primus, considering, before reaching over and opening it.  As he suspected, new words had appeared on the latest page.

#A tortured spark will cause a revolution to start a new era.  Then fear will drive him to hide when he is needed most.#

The Prime frowned.  It seemed to be referencing two events.  The first was obvious to him, but the second? It hinted at something terrible in the more distant future.

_ The weight of destiny is heavy on you, young one…. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things will start to really pick up next chapter.


	5. Warped Priorities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nightfire meets some new friends!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Decided to post this one early. There will be another chap posted on Sat as usual.

The trip back was uneventful, though once back in Vos Nightfire immediately wanted to use his new alt-mode the rest of the way.  They had to stop him, telling him that alt-mode travel had a few rules to it: he couldn’t just use it anywhere. Airfix also informed him that it would be a good idea to ensure his navigation software was sufficiently upgraded to handle both his fast alt-mode and his future duties as a data runner.   Nightfire huffed with disappointment, but understood.

The next couple of joors were spent preparing Nightfire for his future.  Airfix spent the cycles further training him on social and civil matters.  Yarzon, meanwhile, worked on the more mechanical requirements. Upgrading Nightfire’s systems to the latest available.  This included a processor and datacore upgrade, which Airfix assisted with. Airfix also provided any software upgrades he needed.

Nightfire was then encouraged to explore the city on his own, to get to know the streets and alleys intimately.  It would be required for when he started working. To also help prepare him, Yarzon started having him get supplies.  Nothing major, just little things to get him used to the concept of interacting with other Cybertronians aside from Airfix and using their currency.

It would be during one of those supply runs that he would encounter a rather ‘special’ individual….

Nightfire had just purchased a new quantum spanner when it was literally yoinked out of his hand before he could subspace it.  “What the….,” he gasped, wondering what happened.

“Scrap…,” the merchant sighed.  “It’s Skywarp again.”

“Who?”  Nightfire asked, still recovering.

“Skywarp, a seeker that has a thing for stealing things,” the bot explained.

“Stealing is against the law…,” Nightfire muttered.  “He hasn’t been punished for this?”

“No one’s been able to  _ catch _ him,” the merchant grumbled.  “He is able to both cloak  _ and _ teleport.”

“Got that right!”  a voice said. They both looked up to see black and purple, sleek seeker frame perched on top of an awning.  Skywarp was looking down at them, a cocky, smug grin on his face. “You want this back?” He was waving the spanner.  “You got to catch me!” He then just disappeared.

“Don’t bother,” the merchant warned.  “Like I said, you won’t catch him. Here.”  He gave him another spanner, which Nightfire immediately subspaced.  “Free of charge.”

“Thanks….” Nightfire looked at the location Skywarp was, frowning.  He had a hard time understanding why a fellow bot would be driven to such acts.  Did he not have a purpose…a job…of his own? Or did he do it just for the hell of it?

It bothered them.  And it kept bothering him on the way back home.   His mood was immediately noticed by Yarzon and Airfix.

“What is wrong?” Yarzon asked.

After Nightfire explained to them what happened.  Airfix muttered. “Oh him….”

“You know him?”  Nightfire queried.

“He’s stolen a few things from my clinic in the past,” Airfix growled, folding his arms. “Even tried to steal my drone once!  Fortunately, his subspace was apparently too full and he couldn’t fit in in there and I chased him off before he could just teleport it with him.”

“Why?  Why does he do that?” Nightfire asked, his confusion evident in his tone.  “Surely there is something  _ legal _ he could do….”

“He and his partner, Thundercracker, were always troublemakers,” Airfix explained.  “I don’t know their history, but they run a bit of a racket. Skywarp does the stealing, while Thundercracker sells what he steals on the blackmarket.  Skywarp’s sigma makes his side of things very easy.”

“Sigma?”

“Ah, I haven’t told you about that yet.  A sigma is a special ability or trait some bots have, something they are created with when they come from the Well.  It can be just about anything and it’s usually something that can’t be replicated easily with technology. Skywarp’s sigma is teleportation.”

“But he can cloak as well,” Nightfire pointed out.  “So he has two?”

“No bot has two sigmas,” Airfix countered.  “His cloaking ability is likely a mod he has he gotten from somewhere.”

“It’s possible he had stolen it from a Quintesson lab, since your people do not have that tech, but I doubt it,” Yarzon commented.  “Even with his abilities, most of their security measures would have detected him and blown him to pieces.” He leaned forward. “My people take protecting their property  _ very _ seriously.”

Nightfire nodded in agreement.  He remembered being on the receiving end of such measures during past escape attempts.  Some measures were even  _ tested _ on him.  He shuddered at the memory.

A thought occurred to him.  If Skywarp couldn’t have stolen it, he probably bought it or….

“Could Skywarp be a victim like me?” he asked, hugging himself.

Yarzon looked surprised at the question, then his expression turned into a grim one.  “It is possible,” he conceded. “With his sigma, he would more easily be able to escape.”

“But the only one that would know for sure is Skywarp,” Airfix pointed out.

“Maybe we should ask him?” Nightfire suggested.

“You’d have to  _ catch _ him first,” Airfix grumbled.

“Not to mention if what he was put through was  _ anything _ like what you did, he may not  _ want _ to talk about it,” Yarzon added.

“Then I’ll likely have the advantage of shared experience, no?”  Nightfire commented smugly. “I just have to  _ catch _ him like you said.”

“But would pursuing him even be worth it?”  Airfix pointed out. “There’s an equal chance he wasn’t experimented on.  This could be a fool’s errand with all to show for it is a lot of wasted time.”

“But we could reduce that time waste by using a tracking device,” Yarzon pointed out with a smirk.

“You can’t be seriously considering pursuing this, Yarzon.”  Airfix sounded exasperated.

“If he is another bot that can testify against my people, it would be worth it, in my opinion.”  The Quintesson stated flatly.

Nightfire was smirking.

\--

_ A few cycles later _

Nightfire walked through the marketplace, stopping at stores that had the items he was looking for.  Most of the items he bought he put into his subspace, but a few he put into a satchel he had tied around his waist.

While he had been still against the idea, Airfix had explained to him that not all items were ‘subspaceable’.  Mostly due to some property or another that would result in the item being damaged or otherwise ruined. Such items, therefore, were carried in physical bags or containers and were usually highly valuable.

Highly valuable meant it would be a prime target for a certain thieving seeker.

Nightfire doubted Skywarp would strike on the first outing.  Especially with all the other targets around him. But one never knew:  Skywarp did come off as rather cocky and bold on their first encounter.

Just to make himself an even more tempting target, Nightfire would occasionally stop to take out a particular object out of the satchel.  It was one of Yarzon’s puzzle boxes, but the exterior was designed to resemble a rather sensitive piece of computer hardware. He had been tempted to try to open it, but Yarzon warned him it wouldn’t challenge him as it was a very simple one.

_ Looks like it won’t be today. _  Nightfire looked up at the darkening sky.  Best to head home.

Just as he was about to exit the market place so he could transform, he felt the weight of the satchel disappear  “What the!” He looked down to see that it really was gone.

“Idiot!” a familiar voice taunted.  “Don’t flaunt your goods!”

Nightfire looked in front of him to see the black and purple seeker several yards away.  He was laughing at him, holding the satchel in his hands.

“Give that back!”  Nightfire growled running at him.

“Gotta catch me first, loser!”  Skywarp laughed, before disappearing in a flash of purple light.  There was a faint sound of rushing wind along with it.

_ So that’s what it looks like when he teleports. _  Nightfire filed that tidbit away for later.  He pulled a device out of his subspace and turned it on.   _ Ah good, the tracking device is working. _

Skywarp was already over two miles and a half miles away.  Likely due to the teleport. He marked his location in his nav system before putting the device away.

_ The chase is on. _  Nightfire smirked, transformed and sped off.

\--

Skywarp took a quick look around before ducking into an alley.  When he was certain no one had followed, he started inspecting the contents of the satchel.  Most of the item were small, inexpensive items he wondered why the grounder put in there, but he squealed with excitement when he pulled out the computer hardware.  He turned it over in his hands, a smile on his face.

_ Oh lucky snatch, lucky snatch!  _ _ TC should get a lot for this. _

It should put a major dent in the debt they were trying to get rid of.  Well,  _ his _ debt, not so much his twin’s, but Thundercracker was helping him deal with it.  So long as he didn’t get another processor migraine, he should finally start getting ahead of the fragging interest rate.

Skywarp put the hardware back into the satchel before strapping the satchel around his waist.  He exited the alley and started making his way to the drop off point. Skywarp hadn’t gotten far when someone tapped him on the back.

“Eh?”  Skywarp turned, expecting it to be a poor slagger expecting a handout.  His optics widened when he saw who it was.

It was that black and grey bike, his light blue optics glaring at him as he stood there with his arms folded across his chest.  “I do believe you have something of mine,” he stated. “Can we talk for a moment about it?”

_ What the...how the!? _  His processor threatened to shut down.  That the bot asked him a question barely registered to him.  

A bit freaked out, he did the first thing that came to his processor, he transformed and flew away….

\--

Nightfire sighed as he watched Skywarp fly off.  This was going to be harder than he thought. He changed to his alt-mode and gave chase once more.

Shortly into it, he noted that Skywarp wasn’t changing his direction much.  Was it due to confidence in his air superiority or from this state of panic?  It didn’t matter, as it meant he was being predictable.

Nightfire checked his nav system and plotted a course to intercept….

\--

_ How did he find me so easily?  I teleported! _  Skywarp’s processor was racing.  It shouldn’t have been possible! No one can find hm if he teleports!   _ Primus, I should have cloaked too!  Stupid! Stupid! _

At least he was safe now.  Flying like this meant there was no way that bike could get him.  He could relax a bit while he flew to the drop off point.

A few kliks later, he saw sudden movement of his left.  It was that bike...and it had just sped off a building on a trajectory right for him.

“What the  _ frag _ !?”  Skywarp screamed as the bike transformed and landed right on top of him.  The sudden weight made him lose a bit of altitude initially and some control.  He was able to regain both quickly though, as the bike wasn’t that heavy and had made sure to center himself on his frame.  How considerate! That he was able to catch him like this though still freaked him out.

“Get off!”  Skywarp cried.  He wanted to roll, to throw him off, but he didn’t want to wind up  _ killing _ the bot as they were pretty high up.

\--

Yarzon will probably scold him for the stunt he just pulled.  Or have a sparkattack. One of the two. Still, it worked.

Nightfire hung on as Skywarp started going faster, but otherwise didn’t make any sudden movements.  He had expected the seeker to start rolling or banking to get him off, but so far he hadn’t. Probably a good thing, as he didn’t relish the thought of becoming one with the ground.

“I just want to talk!” he told the seeker.

“I’ve been making my payments on time! I swear!” Skywarp cried, his tone full of sheer panic.

_ What? _  Nightfire was still learning things about society, but that sounded like Skywarp was in some kind of debt that he had to pay or would get into big trouble for.  That certainly made things more complicated.

“I’m not here to talk about payments!” Nightfire tried assure him.

“Nononono!”

_ Now _ he started rolling.

Nightfire wrapped his arms around the fuselage, his tank churning a bit from the force.

“I’m not here to hurt you!” he insisted once the spinning stopped.  “I just want to-”

Something caught his optic to his right.  Another seeker, light blue and white in color and it was on a collision course with them.

_ Oh scrap… _

At the last second, the second seeker transformed in midair and kicked him off of Skywarp.

_ Scrap! _

Nightfire flailed as he fell, really wishing he took seeker instead of bike.  He was going to die, he was sure of it.

Then that blue seeker was there again, back in alt-mode.  It flew under him, catching him  _ somewhat _ gently, before descending toward the ground.  When low enough, it transformed again, throwing him off.  Nightfire skipped and skidded along the ground a bit before stopping.

“Ow….,” Nightfire grumbled, starting to stand up, but a heavy foot pinned him to the ground.

“Mind telling me why you were harassing my twin?” a deep voice growled.

_ Twin? _  That was a term he hadn’t heard in that context before.  Something to ask Airfix about later. If he survived this, that is.  “He stole something from me,” Nightfire responded, glancing up at the speaker.

This new seeker was the same type as Skywarp, but a slightly heavier build.  While Skywarp had sleek curves to his frame, this one had sharp points to his.  His wings were high and tense, while Skywarp, whom had landed close by, were down and trembling slightly.

“And bots usually let it go,” this seeker snarled.  “What was so important about what he took?”

“It’s not what he took that is important, as it’s a fake anyway, but what he may know.”

Both seekers recoiled a bit.

“He did keep saying he just wanted to talk, TC,” Skywarp muttered.

TC? This seeker must be Skywarp’s partner, Thundercracker.

“Give me the you took, Warp,” Thundercracker groaned.  Once Skywarp did so, he inspected it. “Scrap...it  _ is _ fake.”  He tossed it aside in frustration.

“Nooo!” Skywarp lamented.  “I was hoping that would take a big chunk out of my debt!”

_ So he is in some kind of trouble. _  Nightfire felt a little guilty now, but it couldn't be helped.  There was no way he could have known this before hand.

Thundercracker seemed a bit perturbed at this new development.  He had grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up to look at him in the optics, those red optics narrowed.  

“Just what is it that my brother  _ might _ know that you would pull something like this?” Thundercracker demanded.

Now that he wasn’t kissing ground, Nightfire got a better idea of where they were at.  Looked like they were in the outskirts.

_ Oh this is not good. _

Outskirts at night was not a safe place to be.

“I think we should take this discussion back in the city proper,” he suggested.  “Before one of the ‘Criminal suppression squads’ find us….”

Thundercracker’s optics widened when that sunk in.  “Warp! Get out of-”

They both heard a scream.  Looking in that direction, they saw Skywarp covered in a stasis net, convulsing from the shock.  Behind him was a squad of Quintesson proxity forms, all armed with capture devices.

“Skywarp!”  Thundercracker roared with fury and charged them, dropping Nightfire in the process.  He too was hit with a net and went down.

Nightfire was torn.  He should run, but he knew what the seeker’s fate would likely be.  It was not something he could allow. With a screech, he rushed the proxies.

He rolled to dodge the net that came his way before pouncing upon the nearest proxy.  Remembering what Yarzon taught him, he located the remote receiver and ripped it out. The proxy crumpled under him.  

Before he could attack a second, however, he was hit with a shock stick. He went down.

_ No...no! _  Nightfire struggled to get up, to keep fighting.  He was hit again with more shocks.

_ Yarzon...I’m sorry….. _

Everything then went black.


	6. Maze

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The trio work together to try to escape their prison.

“Warp, calm down!  Freaking out will not get is out of here!”

Well now, freaking out is about the only thing Skywarp can think of that he  _ can _ do right now.

He, Thundercracker and the bike were locked in a cell together.  The cell had both bars and a forcefield. Beyond that he couldn’t make out much aside from more cells: it looked like they were the only prisoners.

Skywarp and his twin had their hands in stasis cuffs behind their backs and their wings clamped together.  Uncomfortable! The bike had it better: his hands were cuffed to the front, though he was still unconscious.

Worse, something about this place was screwing with this nav systems.  No nav system meant no teleporting. Which meant he couldn’t just teleport out of these cuffs, free them and get the heck out of here.  Yeah, he wanted the bike out of here too, as he didn’t deserve this.

“Gah...if we had just been datarunners instead this wouldn’t have happened!”  Skywarp whined, straining against his cuffs.

“And I told you!” Thundercracker growled.  “That scrap doesn’t pay enough to stay ahead of interest rate  _ and _ ensure we can pay for the rent!  We live in a slum hole as is!”

A groan caught both their attention.  The bike was coming too. They watched as he righted himself into a sitting position and looked himself over.  Skywarp was expected him to start panicking, freaking out,  _ something _ but instead he huffed a sigh of annoyance.

“Well…,” the bike growled.  “This again.”

“Again?” Thundercracker queried, a brow raised.  “You’ve been in this situation before?”

The bike looked back at them, looking a bit surprised.  “Oh so they haven’t dissected you yet,” he stated, a bit too calmly for Skywarp’s taste.  “And yes...I have...many times.”

“Wa-wait...dissect…,” Skywarp stammered, confused.  “Wh-why would they dissect us? We’re just petty thieves….”

The black and grey bot snorted.  “You are not aware of their true nature,” he said as he stood up and faced them fully.  “I take it that since you are still here, you cannot teleport out of this?”

Skywarp shook his head.  “This place is screwing with my nav systems.  Without proper calculations to proper coordinates I cannot teleport safely,” he explained.

“I see. Well then, it will be up to me to get us out of this mess.”  The bot studied both of them for a moment. “Thundercracker, lower your head for a moment.”

Thundercracker was looking at him quizzically but did as asked.  Skywarp watched as the bike then jammed tip of his twin’s head crest into the key slot on his cuffs and started moving it around.  It looked so silly that Skywarp started giggling.

“You seriously think that will work?”  Thundercracker commented, looking rather perturbed at being used like this...or being laughed at by Skywarp.  Perhaps both. “Silly bike...these things require a specific electronic code to open that-”

To both their shock, the cuffs suddenly snapped open and dropped off.

“There’s an emergency switch within the locking mechanism to open them in the event the key is lost or destroyed,” the bike commented smugly as he rubbed his wrists.  “And my name is Nightfire.”

“Hehe, he schooled you TC...and you’re the smart one between us,” Skywarp giggled.

“Shut up…,”  Thundercracker grumbled.

Nightfire then quickly picked the locks on their cuffs, freeing both their hands and wings.

“Well...at least we can move around,” Skywarp muttered, stretching and fluttering his wings gratefully.  “Not that it helps any since we are still in a cell.”

Now Nightfire seemed to be ignoring them.  He was looking around the cell intently. Even testing parts of the forcefield with one of the cuffs.

“I already gave this place a good look over when we came to,” Thundercracker told him.  “There’s no way out. Our best chance is to wait for a guard to come give us enegron.”

“You won’t want the energon they give us,” Nightfire stated flatly as he continued his examination.  “It will be laced with a sedative so they can take us out of the cell without resistance. By the time it wears off...they’ll have us tied up and ready for experimentation.”

“But...prisons don’t experiment on their prisoners!” Skywarp cried, his wings back in shock.

“This is not a prison...it is a Quintesson laboratory,”  Nightfire snarled, looking at him. “One I think I’ve been in before….”

“Eeeehhh!?”  Skywarp had a hard time believing this.

“How can you tell?” Thundercracker asked.  “There’s not much distinguishing this place that we can see right now.”   


Nightfire was quiet for a while, his light blue optics looking distant.  “The way the cell is shaped and structured...the smell...the colors…,” he replied softly.  “Yes...I’ve been here before...in this very cell in fact.”

“So you’ve escaped from this place before?”

“No...I only ‘escaped’ this one by being shipped to a different lab,” Nightfire growled.  He was stomping on the floor panels now.

“So we are doomed,” Skywarp whined.  “Great.”

“No, I saw a means of escape back then...I just didn’t get a chance to use it.”  One panel next to the forcefield slightly shifted when he stomped on it. “Ah, good, they didn’t fix it.  Help me remove this.”

Between the three of them, they were able to remove the floor panel, revealing some of wires and cabling that led into the forcefield.

“Looks like each emitter node has its own power feed,” Thundercracker commented after a moment.

Great.  Techno-mumbo-jumbo made his processor hurt.

“Cutting power to just one or two should be enough,” Nightfire stated, started to reach for the cables.  Thundercracker grabbed his arm.

“Without proper protection you’ll be put in a lot of pain…” Thundercracker warned.

Nightfire snorted dismissively.  “This pain will be  _ nothing _ compared to what I’ve been through.” He yanked his arm out Thundercracker’s grasp, then grabbed and pulled out two of the power cables before he could protest further.  There was a grunt of pain from him and he shook his hand, but otherwise he did not react.

“Hardcore,” Skywarp muttered, impressed, as part of the force forcefield flickered and died.

“Yeah, but new problem,” Thundercracker grumbled. “Part of the force field is down yes, but those bars are still in the way.”

“And too close together for us to squeeze through,” Skywarp added.

“Maybe for you two,” Nightfire stated as he examined the opening.  He then transformed into his alt-mode. “Feed me through.”

The twins looked at each other, shrugged, then picked him up to do so.  It took a bit of maneuvering and the engine part required a bit of pushing and shoving, but they were able to get Nightfire through.  The bike then returned to robot mode and opened the cell for them.

“Ah! Freedom!” Skywarp cried as he started to run down the hallway.  Nightfire stopped him in his tracks.

“We are  _ not _ free yet!” he hissed.  “Between here and the exit they will be a number of security measures in the way to keep test subjects  _ in _ and unwanted visitors  _ out _ .  We must proceed with caution!”

“Do you know what those security measures look like?”  Thundercracker asked, his optics darting along the floors and walls suspiciously.

“Only some….” Nightfire’s tone was regretful.  “We’ll all have to keep our optics open. Audios too.”

“I could just cloak….,” Skywarp offered.

“That won’t protect you from traps triggered by pressure plates.”

“Oh….”  Skywarp felt kind of useless now.

“Your cloaking mod will be useful for disarming some of the traps, actually,”  Nightfire pointed out. “I’ll point them out if I see them.”

Now he felt better and with a happy flutter of his wings he and Thundercracker started to follow Nightfire.

\--

Nightfire proceeded slowly, checking everywhere for signs of traps.  He admittedly had little idea on where to go, as each lab set up differently: Yarzon’s was rather small in compression.  Tiny, actually. Yet even Yarzon’s was slightly maze-like, designed to confuse those that were not welcome. The layout and traps were all intended to give the Quintesson occupants time to escape their enemies.

Quickly realizing they could be wandering lost for some time, Nightfire turned to a console he spotted in a side room.  After making sure the room was clear of traps, he accessed it and started exploring the menus.

“What are you doing?”  Skywarp asked, sounding nervous.

“A long shot...considering who we are dealing with, but I’m seeing if there’s a map to this place,” Nightfire explained.

“I thought you said you were here before?”

“I wasn’t exactly given  _ tour _ of the place,” Nightfire grumbled pointedly.

That shut Skywarp up.  However, now Thundercracker spoke.  “How do you know what you are looking that?  That looks like gibberish to me.”

“I know Quintesson fluently,” Nightfire explained.  So far he didn’t see anything that looked like a map of the place.

“Really?” Skywarp was saying.  “Can you teach me the curse words?”

“Seriously, Warp?” Thundercracker groaned.  Nightfire rolled his optics.

“Always more fun to insult bots when they don't know what you are saying!”  

His twin groaned with exasperation.

Nightfire finally gave up on trying to find a map.  “No map…,” he said regretfully, turning to face them.  “Hard way it is.”

“I heard if you just follow one wall you’ll eventually get out of any maze,” Skywarp suggested as they left the room and turned down into a hallway.

“Sure, that would work...if you have  _ breems _ of time to spare, which we don’t,”  Thundercracker pointed out. “That we haven’t come across any security yet is surprising as is.”

“Their greatest security is people not knowing where the labs are in the first place,” Nightfire explained.  “When a lab is compromised...they escape, then set back up elsewhere.”

“Wait...they don’t fight to protect their labs?”  Skywarp asked.

Nightfire laughed at that.  “Quintessons are cowards when confronted directly.  They only fight when remoted into a proxy or with drones  Such as it was with the ones that captured us.”

“Wait...those were drones...or proxies?”

Nightfire stopped and turned toward him.  “You’ve never seen an actual Quintesson before, face to face?”

“Not...as far as we know,”  Thundercracker admitted as both he and Skywarp shook their heads.

“Huh….”  That struck him as odd, but then again, Vos wasn’t exactly  _ swarming _ with Quintessons like Iacon was.  “You may be meeting one for sure soon then.”  Whether it would be the owners of this lab, or Yarzon if they get out, he didn’t know at this point.  It could go either way.

The lab, so far, was rather sparse on traps:  they hadn’t seen any yet. Nightfire did notice that a lot of the equipment was offline, a few even had a bit of dust on it.  Had this place been abandoned at one point and only recently reinhabited? That would explain the lack of traps: those in the not used areas were probably deactivated to conserve resources.  However, that would likely mean they were not going the right way. Nightfire growled in frustration.

“Hey, Nightfire,” Skywarp spoke up.  “What do these symbols mean? I’ve seen them alot….”

Nightfire looked at where Skywarp had pointed.  Along the threshold of one of the side hallways they were currently stopped by were a few symbols.

# Ж ∏ Ȗ #

“Hmm….”  Nightfire studied them for a moment.  “I’ve only seen the last one before. It’s the symbol for their berthroom,” he stated.  “At least...in that instance. I suspect the symbols mean different things for different labs.  I would explain why they are not in the language codex I have.”

“So the first two could mean anything…,” Thundercracker mumbled.  “Surely one of them means ‘exit’.”

“Good possibility,”  Nightfire agreed.

“I’m betting it’s the middle one...the door shaped one,” Skywarp commented.

“Really?  That would be  _ too _ obvious!”  Thundercracker groaned.

“You never know!”

“Let’s check the entrances to other rooms and hallways first before we jump to any conclusions,” Nightfire suggested.  Thundercracker was nodding in agreement.

After wandering a bit more for a few kliks and noting the more symbols, they noticed the  ‘Ж’ and ‘∏’ symbols popped up fairly regularly. So did a different symbol: Ɣ. When all three of those symbols were on the same entrance, they decided to head that way.

That was when they saw their first active trap.  A series of raised panels all along the floor, while on the ceiling over each one was an emitter.  This was one Nightfire had seen before.

“Those emitters will fire shock beams if you step on the wrong panel,” he explained.  “Or any of them. Would depend on how high they have the security set.”

“So there’s a ‘chance’ there’s a safe path,” Thundercracker sighed, kneeling by the closest panels.  “Any way to tell?”

“Not in my experience,” Nightfire replied regrettably.  “Worse, most Quintessons can just ‘walk’ over these without triggering them.  So we can’t rely on wear patterns.”

“If the hallway was wide enough we could just fly across,” Thundercracker muttered.  “But we can’t see if they have a counter for that on the other side.”

“And my alt mode may be able to get across without triggering them, but you’re both too big to ride on me,”  Nightfire commented.

“Hey!  No calling me fat!” Skywarp snapped.

Nightfire and Thundercracker both groaned and rolled their optics.

“Any way to disarm this?” Thundercracker asked, standing up again and turning toward him.

“Here?  Not to my knowledge,” Nightfire replied.  “I’ve never succeeded in getting past this.”

“Not even with your alt mode?”

“I didn’t  _ have _ my alt mode then.”

“Oh.”  Thundercracker was rubbing his cheek.  “Must be some way around this.”

“Hey guys! I think I figured it out!”  They heard Skywarp shout.

They both looked and to their shock and horror saw that, somehow, while they were talking Skywarp had wandered into the middle of the spread of floor panels.

“Skywarp...how in Primus’ name….” Thundercracker gasped, his wings vibrating with anxiety.

“Either they forgot to turn these on...or they don’t zap ya if you step on two panels at once!” Skywarp explained.

“Or you are incredibly damn lucky!”  Thundercracker sighed, facepalming.

“Let’s test that then!”

“Skywarp, no!”

Despite his twin’s protests, Skywarp started hopping around on the panels randomly, but making sure he landed on two panels at once.  Thundercracker was now gnawing on his claws as they watched.

“Is he...missing some processor circuitry or something?” Nightfire asked hesitantly.  Surely no one was that idiotic….

“He was...almost processor defunct when his spark created his protoform,”  Thundercracker explained quietly. “He’s been  _ mostly _ fixed since then….”

Nightfire wanted to ask ‘by whom’ but he decided that now was  _ not _ the time.  It certainly explained some of Skywarp’s behavior...and Thundercracker’s protectiveness over him.

By now, Skywarp had ‘hopped’ all the way to the other end of the panel spread, arms spread triumphantly with a big grin on his face.  “Easy!” he shouted.

Nightfire and Thundercracker, looked at each other, sighed, then nodded to each other in unspoken agreement.  Thundercracker went first, Nightfire watching him take care to step on two panels at the same time like Skywarp did.  Once he was across, Nightfire followed, though he had more difficulty due to his smaller footprint. He eventually made it.

“I solved a traaap! I solved a traaap!”  Skywarp was saying obnoxiously, until Thundercracker smacked him on the head. “Ow!”

“Let’s not celebrate until we are out of this place,” the larger seeker grumbled.

“Spoil sport...” Skywarp muttered, rubbing his head.

They continued only going down hallway and doors with the ‘Ж’, ‘∏’, and ‘Ɣ’ symbols. It had to be the right direction, as they started encountering more and more traps and other security measures.  So far, they had been able to either disarm or get around them without triggering them.

Then they were faced with a choice.  The three symbols they have been faithfully following had split up.  ‘Ж’ and ‘∏’ were on the doorway to their left, while ‘Ɣ’ was on the one on the right.

“I vote left!”  Skywarp was saying.

“Still going for the obvious?” Thundercracker groaned.  “I think right is more likely.”

“I find myself agreeing with Thundercracker,” Nightfire stated.

“Screw you guys...I’m going left!”  Before they could stop him, Skywarp dashed through that door.

“Damn him…,” Thundercracker groaned, rubbing his face.  “We better go after him to ensure he doesn’t get himself scrapped.”

With a sigh, Nightfire nodded in agreement and they went after him.  Skywarp hadn’t actually gone far. In fact, he was stock still, his wings down in back, mouth agape in shock.  It took a moment for them to notice why.

The room they were in was dark and vast, the only light coming from the soft yellow glow of rows upon rows of large tanks.

These tanks had the unmistakable forms of Cybertronians within them….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope the character map symbols I used show up for everyone (Win 10 version, if that makes any difference). Just tin case though, I'll say what they are in order they are first mentioned:
> 
> Cyrillic Capital Letter Zhe = looks a bit like an astrik  
> N-Ary Product = tall rectangle with the bottom missing (or a 'looks like a door' as Skywarp said XD)(OK, they changed the font used for them and this one REALLY looks like a door now XD)  
> Latin Capital Letter U With Breve  
> Latin Capital Letter Gamma = V shape with a loop on the bottom
> 
> I also really wanted to describe more traps, but I couldn't think of any that weren't either too medieval or cliche. I actually only thought of one more, but that one will be seen later...


	7. Shattered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A dark secret is uncovered.

When Nightfire told them they didn’t know the Quintesson’s true nature, he hadn’t been kidding.

Skywarp wanted to tell himself that this wasn’t real, that he was in the middle of bad processor dream.  That he would wake up any second and be safe at home in his berth. A quick pinch on his protoform told him that he was very much living this right now.

The Cybertronians in the tanks were all grey, lifeless.  Some were complete, other’s were in various states of destruction.  Limbs missing. Holes in the chassis. And so on.

“Is this...some kind of...graveyard?” Skywarp heard his brother ask.

“No…,” Nightfire replied, his voice tense and nervous.  “Th-these are the results of various experiments they decided to keep for one reason or another.”

“Wh-why…?” Skywarp asked, finally getting his vocalizer to work.  “Why do this to us?”

“Because they only see us as objects...property...to use as they wish then discard when we are too broken to be of any further use….”  He could tell Nightfire was getting more and more unnerved by this place. His voice was shaking, almost to the point of turning into static.  “I see an exit on the other side...let’s get out of here.”

Skywarp nodded eagerly, as was Thundercracker.

As they walked through the room, they couldn’t help but keep looking at the tanks.  The further down they got, the more disturbing they looked, such as the one that looked half melted.  Then, tanks started having two bots in them at once. All them with their chest panels ripped open, their spark chambers exposed.  Then they saw one that had their chambers fused to the other one...and there were more like that after that one.

“They were forcing them to do spark merges?”  Thundercracker mused, apparently taking a guess at the intent.  “Why?”

“Bro...these two look kind of like the guys that tried to rip our wings off when we were sparklings…,” Skywarp pointed to one of the tanks.

“They do...and I’m surprised you remembered that, Warp.”

“I wasn’t completely processor defunct ya know….”  Skywarp muttered, somewhat sheepishly.

There was a gasp from Nightfire, drawing both their attention.  The bike had gone ahead of them and was now standing in front of a tank that was near the end of the row.   The last one that had anything in it. His mouth was open, optics wide in confusion.

When they joined him, Skywarp quickly saw why….

\--

Nightfire had wanted to get out of here, but this tank on his right had caught his attention.

In it was two Cybertronians, one a seeker the same class as Skywarp and Thundercracker.  The other was a bike, like he was. Like others, their chest panels were ripped off and spark chambers forcefully fused together.  That wasn’t the disturbing part though.

What was disturbing him was that he felt he knew them, yet he was quite certain he had never met these two in his life.

“They...kind of look like you.” He heard Thundercracker comment.

Nightfire looked back at him, seeing that the twins had joined him at this tank.  They were looking between him and the pair in the tank repeatedly.

“They...do….,” Skywarp agreed.  “Creepy.”

Shaking, Nightfire looked at himself, then back at the tank.  Now he could see the similarities. It was almost like his protoform was….

_ No…. _

He remembered how his previous two frames didn’t feel  _ right _ , but this one did.

_ No it can’t…. _

“Thirteenth attempt…,” he muttered. With the two seekers looking at him in befuddlement, he raced back down the tank row, stopping at the first tank that had a pair with fused chambers.  Nightfire had to search the tank a bit before finding an information panel.

# Sparkdome & Flatscrap:  Reproduction test #1. Failure#

_ Reproduction test? _  They were trying to produce more of their kind without the use of the Well?

Nightfire raced to a few more tanks, looking at the info panels on each.

#Residue & Steellock:  Reproduction test #5. Failure#

#Ripsiren & Nightlight: Reproduction test #8. Failure#

#Sunblast & Wolfspin:  Reproduction test #11. Failure#

Failure.  These were all Failures.   Then he returned to the tank with the familiar looking ones.  With some hesitation, read its panel.

#Ebonscream & Starsong:  Reproduction test # 13. Success.#

Success.

Little pieces of a puzzle started snapping together in his processor.  Questions he always had but didn’t know how to voice being answered. A question he remembered Sentinel asking sprang up back to his processor.

_ “However, you are certain he is Cybertronian?” _

All Cybertronians came from the Well of the Allsparks.  That was what Airfix told him. Yet, everthing here...everything he remembered from his earliest moments...told him otherwise.

He wasn’t from the Allspark.

He was a Quintesson creation.

Nightfire clenched at his chest as he staggered back.  His spark was pulsing so fast that it hurt. He was trembling so hard that he was having a hard time standing.

“Nightfire?  What’s wrong?”

He wasn’t sure which of the twins asked that.  Did it really matter? He wasn’t one of them. There was no way he could be.  What did this mean for him? Did he really have the right to fight for them? To stop the Quintessons from doing what they wanted?

“Nightfire!”  The voice was hushed but frantic.  He felt someone grab him. “Someone is coming!”

He was pulled behind one of the tanks.  Nano’s later, he heard more voices. Quintesson ones.

His processor snapped back to focusing his surroundings rather than his inner turmoil.  Thundercracker was behind him, a hand on his shoulder as they were both crouched behind the tank.  Skywarp he couldn’t see at all: he guessed he was cloaked.

The Quintessons were drawing closer.  Two of them. Both science class. Nightfire recognized them:  Hog-ci and Mog-bol. They were close enough now for him to make out what they were saying.

“)-the Hierarchy saw fit to allow us to restart this project.(“ Mog-bol was saying.

“)Hmph(“ Hog-ci snorted.  “)Only reason they shut it down in the first place was because that dark art meddling fool Mara-Al-Utha tampered with our best result!(“

“)Indeed...but he’s been banished now.  No need to worry about him using ‘magic’ on our projects again.(“ Mog-bol reassured.  “)Speaking of which...did you see what the capture squads brought in last night?(“

“)Yes I did.(“  They were close enough now that Nightfire could see the grin on Hog-ci’s face.  “)Didn’t expect to see  _ Subject Zero _ again, after all the trouble he’s been causing throughout the labs.(“

“)Yes...we will have to be extra careful with him due to his track record,(“ Hog-bol said.  “)A control module like one Yug-co has been developing will likely be required.(“

“)How is that project coming along?  A better means to control our creations is a must.(“

“)Nearly ready for test run, from what I’ve been told.(“

“)Good good.  Does he need a subject to test it on?(“

“)It’s already implanted in the one he intends to use.(“

“)Ah. Figures.(“  The Quintessons, whom were taking their sweet time, were only now just starting to pass their hiding place.   “)So do we intend to use our newest catch for the Reproduction project?(“

“)Two can’t be used with each other, as the scans showed they are split-sparks.  However, they could be used with Subject Zero.(“

“)I’d rather not use Mara’s ‘results’ for our project,(“ Hog-ci admitted.  “)But perhaps with him we can figure out where we keep going wrong. It would require removing the sparkshield first though.(“

Nightfire glanced at Thundercracker, whom looked confused as he couldn’t understand what the Quintesson’s were saying like he could.  Then he looked up at the tank they were hiding behind. It was the one with the two bots he was...created from.

_ They want to use me to create more like me. _  He looked at Thundercracker again.   _ To force us to create more slaves…. _  He remembered how he didn’t exist in the census.   _ That don’t exist according to society...that...that…. _

Could be used however the Quintesson’s wished.  Like they did with him, before Yarzon received him.

_ No...no...! _  His hands clenched, his frame starting tremble with rage.   _ I may not be one of them...but I cannot...I cannot allow it! _

With a screech of rage, he rushed out toward them….

\--

_ So that’s what Quintesson’s really look like?   _ Skywarp watched the pair pass him by as he stood cloaked next to the tank opposite of the one Nightfire and Thundercracker were hiding behind.   _ Uuuuugly! _

He wished he understood what they were saying.  Whatever it was, it was clearly upsetting an already upset Nightfire more and more.  Skywarp wasn’t the smart one, but he did recognize patterns. From how Nightfire checked certain tanks, he recognized that the bike was piecing together something critical about himself.  Something he wasn’t happy about figuring out.

Skywarp wasn’t he smart one.  Yet, he was slowly piecing together what Nightfire apparently did just by observation alone.   _ Did they...create you? _

He got his answer when Nighfire suddenly screeched and rushed out of his hiding place, Thundercracker unable to stop him.  

“You will not create more like me!” he was screaming as he pounced upon the closest of the two very surprised Quintessons.

Skywarp watched in both awe and horror as Nightfire started ripping into the Quintesson with his claws, the creature screaming in terror and pain.  Tentacles were torn off, optics gouged out before he found a way to open the chassis and start ripping out his innards.

Meanwhile, the other one had fallen over and was scrambling to right himself in it’s panic.  The Quint was whimpering and squawking as he kept failing to do so. Desperation became quite evident on his face when the screams of his companion finally ceased and Nightfire turned his attention to him.

The Quint screamed as Nightfire grabbed him by the tentacles then slung him into one of the tanks.  The tank walls cracked, then broke when Nightfire slammed him into it a second time.

Yellow preservation fluid started spilling out unto the floor.  The two bots that were in the tank slipping out and crashing onto the ground.  Skywarp had to jump back to avoid getting hit by them.

Thick glass shards now littered the floor.  Nightfire had picked up the largest of those shards and proceeded to stab the remaining Quintesson with it repeatedly.  Even after it was clearly dead, Nightfire stabbed it a few more times, the anguish and panic clear on his face.

Skywarp watched all of this, unseen, mouth agape and optics wide in shock.  He had never seen anyone attack another with such brutality. It was sickening, yet, could he blame him?  If he had guessed what Nightfire had discovered correctly, the poor bike’s very  _ identity _ was in question.

Nightfire was standing over the gory result of his actions, his frame trembling, covered in Quintesson fluids.  A bit of blue ran down the glass shard he was holding, energon from cuts he had received from the shard. That shard now slipped from his hand, clattering to the floor.

As Skywarp watched, transfixed, Nightfire slowly sank to his knees.  His optics were wide with disbelief and despair. Then he started to sob, his optics clouding over.

“Nightfire?”  Skywarp finally spoke, deactivating his cloaking mod.  Nightfire did not answer, apparently too absorbed in his own inner turmoil.

“Warp...let’s go,” Thundercracker passing them both by, heading back in the direction they came from.

“What about him?”  Skywarp asked, pointing at Nightfire.

Thundercracker glanced back, a look of disdain on his face.  “Apparently, he  _ belongs _ here.”

Skywarp’s wings snapped back.  Of course, his twin would figure it out as well, but to have that attitude about it?  “How could you say that?” he asked. “ _ No one _ belongs in a place like this!”

At this Thundercracker turned toward him, his wings hiking up as he switched to their secret language.  A language only he and Thundercracker knew, as they invented it. ]But he does![ Thundercracker wing signed.  ]It’s obvious they created him! He’s not from the Well! He’s not one of us![

]And he had a choice in the matter!?  Like I did when I was formed with only half a processor!?[  Skywarp signed back.

]That’s different! You came from the Well like me![

]My spark may be from the Well, but my body may as well have come from a place like this![

Thundercracker’s face started to fall.  ]Warp...don’t….[

“Do you know  _ why _ we are in such debt!?”  Skywarp cried, switching back to normal speech: he wanted to Nightfire to hear this.  “It wasn’t  _ just _ because our so-called  _ beneficators _ had to rebuild my body from nearly scratch to fix all my problems!  It was all the training they put me through...how to fight...how to kill...to be their damn  _ assassin _ !  But they didn’t fix me well enough, because I’m still too  _ stupid _ to do what they want!  That’s why they dumped me... _ us _ ...with this debt to ensure I stayed quiet!  Warned me that we’ll  _ both _ be ‘disappeared’ if I talked or missed a payment!”

Thundercracker’s wings were down, his expression one of shock.  “Skywarp...wh-why didn’t you….”

“Because the ‘don’t tell anyone’ bit included you...my own twin,” Skywarp said bitterly.  He then looked around at the tanks before his optics fell upon Nightfire again. Nightfire was looking at him, wide-opticed.  

“But after what I’ve seen here...learned here…I-I can’t stay silent anymore,” Skywarp continued, his tone soft as he approached Nightfire.  “Nightfire...I know my situation would not compare to yours by a long shot...but as far as I am considered...you  _ are _ one of us.”

“How can you be so sure?”  Nightfire asked, his tone quiet.

“You have a spark...you have a frame...that’s good enough in my datapad.”  Skywarp knelt down beside him. “You also decided to help us...when you had no reason to.  That tells me you have a good spark in you.” Gingerly, he reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder.  “I will be your friend...if no one else will.”

“Skywarp, don’t make promises you can’t keep!” Thundercracker protested.

Skywarp looked at him with a fierce glare. “Oh shut up you fragging frameist!”  he shouted at him.

Thundercracker recoiled as if slapped, his optics wide in shock. Skywarp smirked a bit in satisfaction.

Then, he felt something wrap around him.  Looking back he saw it was Nightfire: he was hugging him.

“Thank you…,” Nightfire was saying quietly, soft sobs heard from his vocalizer.

At first, Skywarp was stunned, uncertain how to react.  Then he smiled and lightly wrapped his own arms around him.  “Hey...that’s what friends are for, right?” he told him. Nightfire hugged him tighter.

“Skywarp…,” Nightfire said after a klik.  “You’re not stupid….you just think differently than others.”

Skywarp blinked.  He had never thought of it that way.  “OK...TC? I’m keeping him,” Skywarp chuckled.

“Ugh...he’s not a slagging pet….,” Thundercracker groaned.  “Look, this all nice and mushy and all...but we don’t know when more of those...things will show up.”

\--

Nightfire didn’t want to move right now, let alone let go of Skywarp.  The black and purple seeker felt so...he couldn’t think of the word for it.  Warm? Soothing? Calming? Perhaps a mix? It felt...very similar to what he felt around Alpha Trion, just not nearly as intense.  He didn’t want to be separated from this.

Yet, Thundercracker was right.  They didn’t know who else was in this place.  Actual Quintessons were easy enough to deal with, as they were cowards, but a Quintesson controlling any of their more battle ready proxies?  Nightfire remembered all too clearly his near disastrous battle with Hat-nal’s battle proxy that nearly killed both him and Yarzon.

With a long sad sigh, Nightfire pulled away from Skywarp and got to his feet.  Skywarp rose to his feet along with him. He turned to regard the door they hadn’t been through yet.

“I checked it out while you were going barbarian on those things,” Thundercracker muttered.  “Laboratory, looked like where they...did that….” He glanced up at the occupants of one of tanks.  “Either way...dead end.”

“Scrap...so it’s  _ not _ the exit….,” Skywarp whined, shoulders slumping.

“Told you it was too obvious.”

“Hopefully the other symbol really  _ does _ mean ‘exit’,” Nightfire sighed.  “I’m...done with this place….” He wanted to get out of here before he found something  _ else _ identity shattering.

Thundercracker was already walking away.  Skywarp started to follow. Nightfire looked back up at the tank that had Ebonscream and Starsong one last time, a part of him wondering what they were like, before finally following them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While it wasn't on my mind at the time of writing it, the 1998 movie 'Prince of Egypt' keeps coming to mind now for this chapter. Particularly the scene where Moses discovers the truth behind his origins (the accompanying track 'Goodbye Brother' works almost perfectly with this chap...if you ignore the 'Quintessons getting ripped apart bit').
> 
> Also...how many caught the G1 reference? >:D


	8. So Close

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One obstacle remains...

They only went down hallways and through doors that had the ‘Ɣ’ symbol from that point on.  Placing all their hopes that it would lead them out. They moved quickly, eager to get out of this place, yet remained mindful of traps.

Oddly enough, they didn’t see much in the way of traps.  Until the very end.

They had a feeling they were getting close when the hallway became significantly wider.  When they turned a corner and saw an impressive large door, Skywarp got excited and started to run for it.  The instant he stepped in, a pair of turrets activated and fired. Nightfire, having anticipated this, had grabbed Skywarp and pulled him back just in time.  Whizzing by where Skywarp once stood were two large rail spikes, which embedded themselves into the wall behind them.

“Um….”  Skywarp looked a bit pale.  “Oops?”

“Quintesson labs always have  _ something _ nasty at the exit,” Nightfire scolded.  “You’re lucky I knew this and was able to stop you.”

“Yeah...else you’d be a fancy wall decoration right now, bro,” Thundercracker quipped, poking at the spikes.

“Har har...TC,” Skywarp grumbled.  “So how do we get past this?”

“Well, we need to figure out the activation trigger first,” Nightfire stated as he cautiously peeked around the corner to examine the room.  “Which could be a number of ways in this one’s case.”

The room was large, but relatively barren, decor wise.  He spotted the turrets in the corners on either side of the door, only able to be spotted once right at the entrance to the room.  Nightfire also spotted a possible way to deactivate them. Leading from them both was a thin strip of wiring that ran up the wall and, across the ceiling, then down to a square panel in the center of the sidewall.

“I think I see a means of deactivating them,” he announced, pointing out said panels.

“Yeah...just need to get to them without becoming squiered cyberrats….,” Skywarp sighed.  “Which is not on my list of things to do, thank you.”

“That you were able to stick your head out like that suggests the trigger must not be strictly visual,” Thundercracker mused.  “Must be some other factor needed.”

“Unless the trigger range is stops at this threshold,” Nightfire pointed out.  “Skywarp did take a step in before they fired.”

“Let’s test that!”  Before they could stop him, Skywarp hopped in view of the turrets, but not inside the room itself, before hopping back into cover.  Nothing happened.

“Warp!”  Thundercracker growled as he grabbed him and shook him a bit.  “Don’t  _ ever _ do that again!”

“As impulsive and idiotic a move that was, it did prove one theory,” Nightfire sighed.  “The trigger range doesn’t go beyond that room.”

“See! I’m useful for  _ something _ !”  Skywarp beamed.  Thundercracker groaned, then smacked him on the back of the head.  “Ow!”

Nightfire rolled his optics and thought a moment.  Then, with one hand, he reached into the room slowly.  The turrets remained still. Optics narrowing, he started waving his hand.

Both turrets snapped to attention and fired, Nightfire retracting his hand just in time.  Two more spikes now were embedded into the wall.

“Looks like motion activated then,” Thundercracker stated, Nightfire nodding in agreement.  “How do the Quints avoid it then?”

“Hmm...Most Quintessons I’ve seen are smaller than us...no taller than mid-waist,” Nightfire mused.  He reached out into the room again, this time keeping his hand low as he waved it. The turrets did not react this time.  So he moved his hand up until they did. “Fifteen feet, looks like...is the minimum height they activate.”

“So we could crawl under their trigger range?”  Skywarp asked, looking hopeful.

“No, see the door access panel?” Nightfire pointed at it.  “That looks like it’s in the trigger range. Same with the those panels on the walls.  So are the attachment point for those wires on the turrets themselves.”

“So they thought of everything…,” Thundercracker sighed.

“Perhaps not.”  Nightfire looked at Skywarp.  “Cloak for me then do the same test with your hand I did.”

“Um...OK.”  Skywarp disappeared.  Nightfire was impressed:  though he knew the seeker was there, he couldn’t see  _ any _ hint of his presence.  

He could, however,  _ hear _ him somewhat.  It sounded like he was...dancing?...just inside the room.   _ What the frag? _  Whatever he was doing, the turrets were not reacting to it.  After about a klik, Skywarp reappeared, thankfully outside of their range.

“Pfft...even wagged my aft at them...nothing!”  Skywarp was saying, looking a bit insulted. “How dare they not acknowledge my  _ fine _ aft!”

Both Nightfire and Thundercracker rolled their optics.

“Looks like Warp is our best... _ only _ ...chance to get past those turrets,” Nightfire said grimly.

“I don’t like putting my twin into harms way like this, but...you’re right,” Thundercracker sighed.  “But he needs a way to disconnect those wires...cut them or something.”

“Got that covered!”  Skywarp beamed as he transformed one of his hands into a blade.  It was strictly a piercing weapon, with just the tip sharpened. Covering part of the top part of his forearm was a small metal shield.

Thundercracker blinked at him.  “They gave you that, didn’t they?” he asked.

“Uh-huh...can’t be an assassin without an assassin-styled blade, ya know.”

“Of course….”

“You know what to do, right?” Nightfire asked him.

“Cloak. Stabby the wire things to hopefully not having spikes of doom shooting at us anymore.”

“Right.  Best get going then.  TC and I will keep watch to ensure there are no other...surprises….”

“Got it!”  Skywarp disappeared once more.

Nightfire and Thundercracker watched and waited anxiously, hoping there wasn’t any secondary traps.  It was taking a while for anything to happen: either Skywarp was taking his time or he was having some other difficulties.  Thundercracker looked like he was about to call out to him when there was an audible ‘thunk’, a bit of sparking at a point on wire strips and one of the turrets went limp, inactive.

“That zapped me a bit,” Skywarp was heard muttering.

“Still, it worked!”  Nightfire called to him.  “Get the other one!”

“On it!”  Less than a klik later, the other turret went limp as well.  “Done!”

“Stay cloaked, Skywarp,” Nightfire warned as he cautiously stepped into the room.  His optics darted about the room, his audios primed for any suspicious sounds. There was nothing but the sound of his own footfalls as he reached the door.  He looked back at Thundercracker and nodded. A moment later, they were all at the door, Skywarp decloaking.

“I don’t suppose you’d know the code to unlock this?” Thundercracker asked as they examined the keypad.

“Unfortunately, I neglected to ask the two Quintessons for it  _ before _ I ripped them to pieces,” Nightfire sighed.  

“It’s probably something simple...like their spark day,” Skywarp suggested.  This earned him both a groan and an optic roll from the other two.

“We don’t even know if they  _ have _ those!” Thundercracker sighed as he pried the keypad off.  “I may be able to trick it into opening...give me a few kliks.”

The moment he started fiddling with the wires, Nightfire heard a click behind them.  He turned to see a  _ third _ turret had emerged from the floor, aiming at Thundercracker.

_ Scrap! _  Nightfire reacted on instinct.  He shoved Thundercracker out of the way as the turret fired.  Pain erupted in his right shoulder as he was slammed into the wall by the force of the impact.

The turret was aimed at him now.  He tried to move, but found he was pinned to the wall.  It was going to fire again.

_ Not like this… _  Nightfire tried to pull himself from the wall, but he was stuck fast.   _ Not when I’m so close…. _

A black and purple form slammed into the business end of the turret just as it fired again.  The projectile missing him by a wide margin. Nightfire watched as Skywarp grabbed the turret head and twisted and pulled on it until it snapped off, effectively rendering it harmless.

Nightfire was starting to feel more pain now that the initial shock was wearing off.  The pain in his impaled shoulder was immense and only his impressive pain threshold was keeping him from crying out in agony.  Just.

“OK...this hurts…,” Nightfire groaned.  With his left hand he reached up to try to remove the spike.

“Don’t,”  Thundercracker said, grabbing his hand.  “You do not remove an impaled object unless you are a medical professional!”

“I’m kind of pinned to the wall here TC!”  Nightfire snapped. “I...I….” His frame was starting to tremble.

“Calm down.”  Thundercracker had put a hand on his chest.  “Take some deep intakes. Your trembling will only make this worse.”

Nightfire did as he was told.  He closed his optics and focused on intaking.  Gradually, his trembling lessened and all but stopped completely.

“How are we going to free him from the wall, bro?” Skywarp was asking.

“Working on that, Warp,” Thundercracker was muttering.  Nightfire could feel him trying to inspect the wall behind him.   “Looks like what this thing is made out of is good for piercing, but terrible for strength.”

“Meaning?” Skywarp sounded confused.

“It’s brittle.  Should break easily,” Thundercracker explained.  “The problem is doing it without damaging Nightfire more….”

“If there is no easy way…,” Nightfire panted as he opened his optics to look at them both.  “Just do it...how ever...and get it over with. Th-the longer we stay here….” He didn’t think he needed to say more.

They both looked apprehensive, Skywarp more so.  The dark colored seeker’s wings were down and trembling slightly.  Thundercracker’s expression then turned into one of acceptance and he nodded.   He studied the spike again, no doubt figuring out the best way to do this.

“Warp,” he said finally.  “Grab ahold of him...and when I give the go ahead, turn him toward me.”

“O-OK,” Skywarp relied, sounding uncertain, but complied.  Nightfire felt him brace his hands behind his left shoulder and side.

“Nightfire...relax the best you can.  This...this will hurt.”

Nightfire nodded and mentally prepared himself the best he could.  Thundercracker had gripped the part of the spike protruding from Nightfire’s shoulder and braced himself, his frame tensing.

“OK, ready, Warp?”

Skywarp nodded.

“On three...one...two...three!”  Thundercracker surged forward, throwing all his weight and strength against the spike, Skywarp turning Nigthfire as he was instructed.  There was a loud  _ snap _ as the spike broke off at the wall, which was only barely heard over Nightfire screech of agony.

“Scrap...scrap….,”  Nightfire gasped as he staggered forward, both Thundercracker and Skywarp catching and supporting him.  “ _ Scrap _ that hurt….”

“You’re free from the wall at least…,” Skywarp pointed out.

“Yeah...there’s that…,” Nightfire agreed as leaned heavily into Skywarp.  He felt a bit light headed.

“Let me see if I can get this door open.” Thundercracker said.  “And hopefully there’s no more defenses to worry about….”

Nightfire could tell he was about to faint, possibly go into stasis lock.  What they found here needed to get to the right people and these two wouldn’t know who those people were.  “Sky...warp….”

“Yeah?”  Skywarp looked down at him.  “Geez...you don’t look good.”

“Wh-when you get out of here…,” Nightfire explained.  “Find a flier...named Airfix.”

Skywarp’s wings hiked up in alarm.  “Um...why him? He doesn’t like me….”

“He’s...a friend...of mine.”  It was getting harder to focus.  “Te-tell him what happened...what you...saw here.”

“You can tell him yourself, Nightfire,” Skywarp insisted.  “You’re gonna make it.”

Nightfire chuckled. “I know...but...time...imperative...for...all sake.”

“What do you mean?”

He couldn’t answer as he had lost consciousness.

\--

“Nightfire?”  Skywarp shook him a bit, only to find the bike’s frame to be completely limp.  “Nightfire!”

Thundercracker, hearing his distress, had stopped what he was doing and turned to check on him.  Skywarp watched as he checked Nightfire’s vitals. “He’s still alive…,” Thundercracker assured him. “Can’t tell if he’s just unconscious or in stasis lock.”

“But stasis lock a  _ bad _ thing isn’t it?” Skywarp whined.  “Doesn’t that mean a bot’s about to die?”

“Not necessarily...and like I said, he could just be unconscious.  Either way he  _ will _ need a medic when we get out of here.”  Thundercracker then returned to work on the door.

All Skywarp could do was wait.  So, he sat on the floor, carefully placing Nightfire into his lap and kept watch.  Both for more traps and to monitor Nightfire’s condition.

_ Hang on. _  Skywarp lightly put a hand Nightfire’s chest.    As far as he could tell, the bike was still stable.  He was no medic though...neither was his brother for that matter.  For all he knew, Nightfire could be gradually slipping away.

That thought, that possibility, terrified him.  Because it would have been his fault. He was the one that stole from Nightfire in the first place.  Leading to the chase that brought them to the outskirts and got themselves captured.

_ Don’t die on me...I don’t think I’d- _  His thoughts were interrupted when the door suddenly opened, blinding him briefly with the sudden increase of light.

“And here I thought I was gonna need to open this Wrecker style,” a new, unfamiliar voice stated.

It took several nanos for his optics to adjust to the new light level.  When they finally did, Skywarp could see the speaker.

Standing just beyond the door was a grounder frame that probably only came up to his mid-waist   He was white with red and green accents and he was casually tossing some kind of explosive device in the air and catching it, looking a bit disappointed that he didn’t get to use it.

He felt tension, alarm from his brother through their twin bond.  Skywarp decided to speak before Thundercracker said something that may offend the newcomer.  Thundercracker was not known to be polite to grounders on first meeting.

“Who are you?” Skywarp asked, standing up, lifting Nightfire carefully into his arms as he did so.  “We weren’t expecting a rescue….”

“Wheeljack,” the bot replied, attaching the device to his hip.  “Me and my boys got a tip that some unfortunate bots got caught and needed busting out.”

“Yeah...by the so-called ‘Crime Suppression squad,” Thundercracker grumbled.  “And instead of a prison...we found ourselves in a lab of horrors.”

“And traps...nasty traps,” Skywarp added.  “One of them got Nightfire, he’s still alive but….”

Wheeljack’s optics focused on Nightfire’s limp form in his arms, expression turning to concern.  “Bring ‘em out here. Hammercircuit will take a look.”

Skywarp stepped outside, Wheeljack stepping out of the way.  Now he could see that there were a few other bots out there, all rough and rugged looking like Wheeljack.  A yellow and grey grounder stepped up to him.

“Lay ‘em down here,” the bot, Skywarp assumed was Hammercircuit, told him.

Skywarp carefully did so and stepped back to give him room, but not too far.  He heard Thundercracker stepping out behind him, feeling his anxiety and worry across their bond.  Skywarp sent reassurance back across it.

“So, you are?” Wheeljack’s voice made him jump.

“Skywarp,” he replied, then gestured toward his brother.  “That’s my twin, Thundercracker.”

Wheeljack was nodding in acknowledgement before asking.  “Are there any other bots still in there?”

“Only dead ones in tanks,”  Thundercracker replied. “We were the only...functioning...ones in there as far as we know.”

“Hmm.”  The Wrecker looked thoughtful.  “So we may still need to go in there.”

“You’ll want to talk to Nightfire first,” Thundercracker suggested.  “He...seemed to have a lot of experience with places like this….”

Wheeljack was nodding in acknowledgement.  “How is he lookin’, ‘Circuit?”

“Too risky to remove this object out here in the field,”  Hammercircuit replied with a shake of his head. “Best I can do is stabilize it to minimize further damage until he can get to a proper clinic for surgery...and I ain’t a proper medical transport.”

Something clicked in Skywarp’s mind.  “Airfix…,” he muttered.

“What was that?” Wheeljack asked.

“Nightfire was telling me to find Airfix before he went unconscious.  He is an emergency transport vehicle.”

“Bro...Airfix  _ hates _ you!”  Thundercracker reminded him.

Skywarp winced, but steeled himself.  “I’m going to him anyway. Nightfire told me to tell him what happened...and I will.”

Thundercracker was making more protests, but Skywarp was too focused on checking his nav system.  Thankfully, it was fully operational again. He made note of his current location: about ten miles northeast of Vos.  It will be needed for the return trip. “TC, stay with Nightfire. I’ll be back soon.”

Before his twin could erupt into more protests, he took off running, lept into the air and transformed….


	9. Fears

Unfamiliar voices.  Something...or someone kept touching him, manipulating him.  It hurt.

His processor flashed back to earlier times.  Painful times. When he was restrained. Poked, prodded, injected with pain.  Torn limb from limb. Melted. Burned. Crushed.

With a screech he lashed out, though only one hand was working.  He connected with something. A few voices cried out in alarm.

“Nightfire!”

That one...that voice was familiar.  He struggled to place it. Where had he heard it?  Who did it belong to?

Something was holding his working hand.  He fought against it. “)I won’t let you hurt me again!(“ he screeched in Quintesson.

“What the frag did he just say?” one of the unfamiliar voices said.  That...that sounded Cybertronian.

“I don’t know!”  It was that familiar one again.  “It’s probably Quintesson...he said he’s fluent in it!”

His processor was starting to piece things together.  Return to the present. Captured. Seekers. Escaped. Tanks.  Turrets.

Seekers.  Black and purple.  Blue and white. Skywarp….

His processor finally back fully in the present, he opened his optics, only to shut them again briefly due to the brightness of the Cybertronian sun.  Nightfire blinked until his optics adjusted to the light. He quickly noticed Thundercracker was kneeling next to him.

“Thundercracker?” Nightfire whispered with a moan.

“About time you snapped out of it,”  Thundercracker sighed. “You got Wheeljack pretty good.”

“Who?”

A bit of commotion caught his attention close by.   He saw short stocky looking white grounder, fending off a larger yellow and grey one.

“Frag off! It’s just a scratch!”  the white one was saying. Nightfire guessed that one was Wheeljack.

“But Jackie, that close to your optic….” the other protested.

“I can tell if my own optics are damaged or not, ‘Circuit,” Wheeljack growled.  “I’ll be fine.”

“May want to at least have it disinfected,” Nightfire commented, taking a moment to look around a bit more and noticing the other bots close by.  “I recently ripped apart a couple of Quintessons.” He idly inspected the claws on his left hand. “Never know what filth is running through their blood.”

He felt all optics on him, no doubt full of surprise, save for Thundercracker, who witnessed the deed.

“You killed….” One of the other bots started to say, but then reset his vocalizer.  “Why?”

“They were the start of a long period of pain and suffering for me,” Nightfire growled, before finally taking stock of his condition.  His right arm was completely immobilized against his chest with gauze. The spike in his shoulder also had stabilizing wrappings around it.

“Pushy bastards sound like they deserved it to me,” Wheeljack commented.  Looking his way, Nightfire saw that he finally submitted to having the scratch treated, though he could tell he did not enjoy it.

Hearing a stranger agree with him on that made him grin a bit.  Then it dawned on him that someone was missing. “Where’s Skywarp?”

“Took off to find this…’Airfix’ you apparently told him to go to,” Thundercracker replied, sounding annoyed.

“Ah yes...I do remember requesting that of him,” Nightfire sighed as he attempted to sit up.  He succeeded with some effort.

“Don’t move too much if you can help it,” the medic warned him.  “That projectile is dangerously close to a major line.”

“Noted.”

“Thundercracker said you’d be able to tell us what to expect in there,”  Wheeljack jerked his head in the direction of the lab, earning him a ‘stay still’ from the medic.  “Skywarp mentioned traps.”

“Not as many as a typical Quintesson lab in my experience, but yes,” Nightfire confirmed.  “Most designed to incapacitate, but a few are definitely more  _ lethal.” _   He pointed at his shoulder for emphasis.  “That said...this one appeared to be largely unused.  From the chatter I overheard before I ripped them apart, it appears this lab was only recently ‘approved’ to be used again by their Hierarchy.”

“For what?”

Nightfire chose his next words carefully.  “They are researching a means to create more of us without relying on the Well.”

There were stunned faces all around.

“Would such...creations....really be one of us?”  someone asked.

“What about if they offline?  Would they go to the Allspark?” another asked.

“Screw that...how would we know the difference?  I don’t want to end up melding with one!”

Nightfire tried his hardest not to react to those questions and comments, and worse ones that followed.  Ones that hit him hard to the very core of his being. Ramping up the fear that he had building inside ever since he made that discovery about himself.  A fear that, from what he was hearing, was very justified. If this group of Cybertronians had trouble accepting the mere  _ possibility _ of someone like him existing….

He felt a hand on his arm.  Looking over, he saw Thundercracker, whom had a look of sympathy... _ understanding _ ...on his face.  It made him feel a little better.

“Enough!”  Wheeljack suddenly shouted, stopping the discussion cold and drawing all optics to him.  “Those ‘what ifs’ don’t matter right now. What does is that they are capturin’ our own people to do try to accomplish this.  I’d say we level the place so they can’t use it.”

“They’ll just set up elsewhere and continue anyway,”  Nightfire told him regretfully, shaking his head. “They have many alternate locations...back up labs.   Destroying one lab will do nothing.“

“Then what do ya suggest we do?”  Wheeljack asked, his optics seeming to blaze.

“Document  _ everything _ you see in there,” Nightfire replied bluntly.  “Especially the rooms you reach by following these symbols.”  He scratched the ‘Ж’ and ‘∏’ symbols on the ground. Wheeljack stepping closer to look at them.  “Afterward...get what you documented to Sentinel.”

“Pffft...the tin-foil Prime?” someone grumbled dismissively.  “What will he do about it?”

“Sentinel is suspicious of our so-called benefactors,” Nightfire explained.  “He is in the process of gathering evidence to expose them.”

“If he is not a Quintesson shill and just gatherin’ up names for to add to the hit lists,” Wheeljack countered.  “Are ya really sure you can trust him? That  _ we _ can trust him?”

Nightfire raised his hand toward Thundercracker, silently asking him to help him to his feet.  The seeker did so and once he was standing, Nightfire found Wheeljack only came up to his chest.  He found that amusing for some reason, but kept that to himself.

“This thing called  _ trust _ is still fairly new to me,” Nightfire admitted flatly.  “So do I trust him? Not fully. Right now though, he’s the best bot we can go to with this.  If he proves to be, as you call it, a shill, then it will be up to bots like us to stop the Quintessons from turning us all into  _ slaves _ .”

“Puh….” Wheeljack folded his arms.  “If ya ask me, too many bots are already slaves to them.  Blinded by the ‘miracles’ they performed.”

“Then we need to  _ un _ blind them,” Thundercracker growled.  

“And that...I agree with,”  Wheeljack said with a slow nod.  “We’ll document what we see in there, as ya suggested, Nightfire.  Send a copy to Sentinel...anonymously...and keep a copy for ourselves.   Just in case. Frag, I’ll ensure every single Wrecker knows about this...so if the time comes we get to kick their afts off our world, we’ll be there to give them a ‘friendly farewell’ present.”  The Wrecker was patting the grenade on his hip, to show  _ exactly _ what he meant by ‘friendly’.

Nightfire smirked gleefully.

\--

_ Meanwhile _

Skywarp teleported three times before he reached the outskirts of Vos.  He wanted to teleport again, but he was exhausted. The chase from last night, the escape and this...he was nearly on empty.

_ Should have asked those Wreckers if they had any energon to spare before I left. _

Too late now.  He’ll just have to fly the rest of the way and get some energon from Airfix’s clinic.  If Airfix doesn’t kill him first.

Movement below caught his attention.  Someone was searching the area below. Actually, this area looked like where they were captured.  He focused his sensors on the bot there, mostly out of curiosity.

_ Wait is that? _

White and yellow color scheme.  Ugly aft turbines on support struts instead of elegant wings.  Yeah, that was him: Airfix. What was he doing out here?

Didn’t matter!  This was a lucky break!  Skywarp swerved and dove toward him.

“Airfix!”  he called out as he transformed and landed close to him.

The larger flier jumped, dropping a familiar object:  the fake device he stole from Nightfire. Airfix turned toward him, but before Skywarp could say anything, he charged him.

“Ipe!”  Skywarp cried out when Airfix grabbed him by the neck and slammed him into a wall.

“Where is he!”  Airfix demanded.

“Wh-who?”  Skywarp was momentarily confused, his processor a bit scrambled from the blow.

“Nightfire!  A dark colored bike!”

That got his processor back into proper working order.  “He sent me!” Skywarp started to explain quickly. “We got captured by the Quintessons...taken to a lab.  We were able to escape but he got hurt! He told me to find you!”

Airfix blinked at him, looking surprised.  The grip on his neck loosened slightly. “Where is he now?”

“About ten miles from here, just outside the lab.”

That grip tightened again.  “You left him alone!?”

“No!”  Skywarp gasped.  “My brother and a bunch of Wreckers are with him.”

That finally got Airfix to let him go.  Skywarp rubbed his neck gratefully.

“You will take me to him,” Airfix demanded.  “If this is a trick...I’ll rip your wings off.”

“I swear by my spark it’s not at trick!”  Skywarp insisted. “This way.”

Skywarp lept into the air and transformed, Airfix doing the same.

He knew the trip was going to be slow and painful for him.  Airfix wasn’t nearly as fast as him, not to mention the lack of teleportation ability.  Skywarp doubted Airfix would want to talk much on the way. He would be wrong.

“You said you were taken to a lab,” Airfix stated.  “What kind of lab?”

“A Quintesson one,” Skywarp replied.  “Nasty place. Don’t recommend.”

Airfix was quiet a moment.  “Tell me everything.”

“What for?  You likely wouldn’t believe me….”

“Let’s just say I have a  _ keen _ interest in what our ‘benefactors’ are really up to.”  There was a faint snarl in the flier’s tone.

Now Skywarp was starting to understand why Nightfire wanted him to find Airfix.  He was another bot like Nightfire that didn’t trust the Quintessons.

With that in mind, he spared no detail.  Airfix remained respectfully quiet throughout...until he got to the part about the tanks and what he figured out about Nightfire.

“By the Allspark…,” Airfix muttered, his tone grim.  “We feared this.”

“Huh...?  You knew about Nightfire-”

“Skywarp...it is  _ imperative _ that you do not tell anyone what you suspect.”

“Wh-why?”

“Because other bots may not understand.  He would face persecution...treated like a lesser being.  I am actually surprised you are willing to help him.”

Skywarp stayed quiet for a moment.  “I am willing to help him because I am his friend,”  he said, his voice shaking slightly from anxiety. “And I’m a his friend because...I understand what he’s going through...what he fears...I’ve faced already.”

“And you don’t now?”  Airfix sounded suspicious, but Skywarp understood why.

“No, because what caused it has been fixed,” Skywarp explained.  “But fixing cause it’s own problems.”

The flier was quiet again.  “It would appear going after you wasn’t a waste of time like I thought….” he eventually muttered.

“Wh-why would you have Nightfire come after me?” Skywarp asked nervously.  “I’m just a petty thief….”

“No, you seem to be much more than that.”

His processor couldn’t quite piece together what Airfix meant by that.  Fortunately, he was distracted by his nav system telling him they were approaching their destination.   As they descended, he noticed there were fewer Wreckers than when he left, Wheeljack among the missing. On the plus side, both Nightfire and Thundercracker were still there and Nightfire was awake.  That made him happy.

“Nightfire!” Skywarp cried as he landed.  “You’re awake! Thank Primus!” He moved to hug him, but Thundercracker stopped him.

“Warp, come on...you can’t really hug someone safely with a wound like that!” Thundercracker chided.

“Right...sorry.”

“Nightfire…”  Airfix said as he approached him.  “How are you feeling?”

“As well as can be expected,” Nightfire replied tiredly as Airfix checked his wound.

“No criticizing my work now, Airfix!”  Hammercircuit snarked, a smirk on his face.

“Hammer!”  Airfix fist bumped him.  “So you weren’t kidding when you told us where you were going after graduation!  With the rough and tough Wreckers!”

“Someone needs to keep these crazy bots together!”  Hammercircuit laughed.

While those two were getting reacquainted and going over Nightfire’s injury, Skywarp asked Thundercracker.  “Where’s the rest of the Wreckers?”

“Wheeljack took them into the lab to map it out and document what is in there,” Thundercracker replied.  “We told them everything we could about the traps in there.”

“Huh...they seem more like the type to just blow the place than do that,” Skywarp muttered.

“Nightfire convinced them otherwise.  They’ll also be guarding the place to ensure no Quints try to cover their tracks.”

Skywarp nodded, then felt a painful rumble in his tank.  “Scrap...all that running and teleporting around….” he grumbled.

“I told you to always keep a spare cube or two in your subspace!”  Thundercracker sighed, taking a cube out of his own subspace and giving to him.  “What would you do without me?”

“Probably starve...wind up part of a wall...locked up in the brig….”  Skywarp replied cheekily before consuming the cube contents hungerly. Thundercracker rolled his optics.

Beside them Airfix suddenly transformed and Hammercircuit started helping Nightfire into his passenger bay.  Skywarp stepped over to help. As he did so, a realization hit him: they were about to part ways. It filled him with sorrow, as he had no idea when he may see him again.

“I...suppose we should exchange frequencies or something,” Skywarp stated.

“No need,” Nightfire muttered.  Skywarp was a bit stunned by this...did he not consider him a friend too?  “You’re coming with us.”

That stunned him even more.  “Why?” he asked.

“Because we know someone that would be  _ very _ interested in your story,” Airfix replied.  “Someone that wants to end the Quintesson occupation.”

Well, that sounded reasonable.  He went ahead and climbed in, sitting down next to Nightfire.  “Come on, TC! You’re coming with!”

“You know we can fly!” Thundercracker protested as he reluctantly climbed in.  “A seeker riding in a flier...it’s just  _ wrong _ !”

“Oh get over yourself…,” Airfix grumbled, closing the doors and reving up his engines.

“So...who  _ is _ this someone?”  Skywarp asked once the flier had lifted off.  It felt strange to actually  _ ride _ instead of  _ fly _ .

Nightfire’s optics were closed, but he was still awake.  “The one that ended the cycle of torture I was in...and wants to stop his people from enslaving other species.”

“Wait...wait…!”  Thundercracker had a hand on his head and waving the free one around.  “You mean to tell me...that this person is a  _ Quintesson _ !?”

“Yes.  Yarzon is his name.”  Nightfire’s optics had opened a crack.

“Wouldn’t he get a bit upset that you ripped apart two of his own kind?” Skywarp asked, having a bit of trouble having this sink in.

“While he seems to abhor violence himself, he understands my desire to kill them,” Nightfire replied quietly.  “Especially after he learned what they did to me.”

Skywarp remembered what Nightfire mentioned when they were still in that lab.  “Must have been quite horrible…” he muttered.

“Yes….”  Nightfire’s voice was barely a whisper, his optics fully closed again.  “Yes it was….”

Skywarp looked down at Nightfire.  From the intake rate, it appeared he had slipped into recharge.  After a day like this, he didn’t blame him one bit! Frag, he was quite tired himself, so he settled into take a nap.

However, Thundercracker kicked him to get his attention.  He glared at his twin, wondering what the deal was.

]Are we sure about this?[  Thundercracker wing signed.  ]Can we really trust this...Yarzon?[

]Nightfire obviously does,[ Skywarp replied in kind.  ]Though I admit it is surprising considering how he treated the  _ other _ ones.[

]Yeah...and it’s been heavily implied they are devious manipulative bastards,[ Thundercracker pointed out.  ]How do we know if Yarzon is not just pulling his strut?[

Skywarp remained silent for a moment, watching Nightfire sleep as he pondered over Thundercracker’s words and what he knew about Nightfire.  Nightfire was clearly the vengeful type and quick to give out punishment if he could. He didn’t seem the type to trust anyone, especially a Quintesson, so easily.  If he trusted Yarzon, it must mean the Quintesson had really earned it.

]I think…[ he finally replied.  ]That if Nightfire even  _ suspected _ Yarzon was playing him for a fool,  he’d be dead by now.[ Skywarp looked at his brother.  ]I’d say we give him a chance.[

Thundercracker was releasing a long sigh, his expression telling him he had expected this response.  ]Fine. But if I even  _ suspect _ foul play...I’m getting us outta there by any means necessary.[

Fair enough.


	10. Verification

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yarzon finds out what happened and more.

Ever since Nightfire hadn’t returned last night, he had been a nervous wreck.

Yarzon called Airfix first thing that morning to inform him of this development.  He had hoped Nightfire just opted to stay with Airfix for the night. Unfortunately, that proved to be not the case, as Airfix told him he hadn’t seen or heard from him either.   The flier had asked where the tracking device was and when Yarzon checked, neither liked where the device ended up.

Vos outskirts, where the so-called Crime Suppression squads do most of their patrols, especially at night.  This did not bode well for Nightfire. Airfix told him he would go check the area when he had a free moment, thinking that perhaps Nightfire was injured and laying low until a friendly face found him.  Yarzon prayed the was the case.

Since then he had been unable to focus on any of his projects.  His mind was too busy racing with possibilities of what happened to Nightfire.  He knew Nightfire was resourceful and intelligent, thus would figure a way out of situation if given enough time.  It was what could be happening to him  _ during _ that time that churned his stomach.

Then, around midday, his comm started buzzing.  It was Airfix.

“I’m here,” Yarzon answered, unable to suppress the nervous quiver in his voice.

//I found him.\\\ Airfix stated.  //He’s injured, but alive.\\\

_ Oh thank Quintessa…. _  It felt like a Cybertronian sized weight was just taken of his back.  “What happened?” he asked.

//My two additional passengers would be better able to tell the story than I.\\\

That made his tentacles still for a moment.  “Can they be trusted?”

//One for sure, as he seemed to have formed a bit of a bond with him.  The other I can tell is more suspicious, but I believe he’s just concerned for partner’s wellbeing.\\\

Though Airfix did not name any names, Yarzon suspected who Airfix was referring to.  Skywarp and Thundercracker.  _ So you did catch him. _  The Quintesson smiled a bit with pride.

“Understood, I’ll clear a space so we can treat his injuries.”

//Acknowledged.  I’ll be there in about half-breem.\\\

That time was spent mostly anxiously pacing, especially after he cleared a workbench to serve as a makeshift medical berth.  Airfix hadn’t told him how bad the injury was. Had to be moderate at least, as he doubted he would have mentioned a few dents or scratches.  Yet it couldn’t be critical either, as it would have made more sense to take him to the ER in that case.

Knowing Nightfire was injured in the first place did not make him feel good.

Finally, he saw Airfix land in the secluded courtyard just outside his lab via camera.  However, after his side doors opened, no one came out. It was a couple of kliks before a light blue and white seeker finally stepped out, wings down and looking very anxious.  After another klik, a second seeker hopped out, this one black and purple. His wings were set higher and looking generally more confident. He was also holding Nightfire, whom looked either unconscious or asleep.  Yarzon could see the first hint at what happened to him: his right arm was completely immobilized against his chest.

Now Airfix transformed and held out his arms to take Nightfire.  The seeker holding him appeared to decline, from the exasperated sigh Airfix did after.  At that point Airfix entered the access corridor, the seeker holding Nightfire following right behind, while the other one trailed behind hesitantly.

Yarzon temporarily disabled the security systems so the group could get in without any hiccups.  Shortly after, they entered the main lab, at least Airfix did. The two seekers, and by circumstance, Nightfire, hung just outside, both now looking anxious.

“It’s alright,”  Airfix assured them.  “Yarzon here wouldn’t harm a scraplet.”

“On the contrary, my friend,” Yarzon countered.  “A scraplet I probably would ‘harm’ with extreme prejudice…considering I had a swarm of them destroy a lab once.”  His optics then focused on Nightfire and he frowned with concern. “How serious is his wounds?”

“Right shoulder impalement,” Airfix replied grimly.  “From a spike turret. A Wrecker medic, an old friend of mine actually, did the stabilization and gave him a sedative to reduce pain and relax him for the return trip.”

“More like knock him out…,” the black and purple seeker muttered.  “He’s been out cold since he went into recharge.”

“Considering the company Hammercircuit keeps, the dose needs to be potent,” Airfix explained with a slight shrug.  “It’s designed to knock out the most stubborn of them. He’ll still need to be put into stasis for the surgery.”

The black and purple seeker seemed to finally get brave enough to take a step into the lab, but the other one stopped him.

Yarzon and Airfix watched as this one stepped in himself, acting much braver than he was earlier.  He looked pointedly around, before deciding it was safe and started moving his wings in a rapid upward twitching pattern.  A pattern the first one seemed to understand and, with a nod, came in himself. Both jumped when the door closed behind them.

“It’s alright, no harm will come to you here,” Yarzon stated before gesturing to the cleared workbench.  “Please lay Nightfire here.”

The seeker seemed distracted for a moment, like was checking something internally.  What followed was more wing rapid wing upward twitches. The other seeker seemed to relax a bit more.

_ Fascinating, they seem to be able to communicate to each other with just wing moments alone…. _

“If you are done chatting to each other, we would like to begin repairing Nightfire,” Yarzon commented, again gesturing to the cleared workbench.

“Did-did you understand that?”  the seeker holding Nightfire asked, before finally doing what was requested of him.

“No,” Yarzon assured him as Airfix brought out his medical tools.  “I just know how to recognize when a secret code us being used. Being a member of the science caste helps with that, as we know how to recognize specific patterns and details.  Now.” He looked between them. “I believe I know who you are, but not who is who. Skywarp and Thundercracker?”

They both nodded, though for a moment neither said anything.  Then the black and purple one patted his chest. “I’m Skywarp…,” he said, before pointing at the other.  “He’s my twin, Thundercracker.”

_ Twins?  Now that is interesting. _  Yarzon had heard about sparks splitting into two before developing protoforms, but had never seen a result of such a thing.  “A pleasure to meet you both,” he stated, nodding. “If you are hungry, there is an energon dispenser right over there.” he pointed a tentacle toward it.

Skywarp had immediately started for it, but Thundercracker had grabbed him and pulled him back, then proceeded for the dispenser himself.

“Scrap, TC!” Skywarp snapped, scowling.  “I’m not helpless anymore! Stop being so overprotective!”

“So long as you are my twin, I will be protective,” Thundercracker had calmly retorted as he grabbed a cube.  He then proceeded to test the contents of it similar to how Nightfire once did. When he apparently satisfied that it was safe, he beckoned for Skywarp to come over.

“I apologize for my brother’s behavior,” Skywarp muttered as he grabbed a cube.

“I expected that, so no need,” Yarzon stated with a shrug.  “Nightfire did the same when he first came into my care.”

“Yarzon, I’m ready to start,”  Airfix announced.

“Alright.”  Yarzon turned his attention to Nightfire and started helping Airfix remove the bandaging on Nightfire.  He was well aware of both seekers watching him.

“We were told you were interested in our story,” Skywarp asked after a klik.

“That I am,” Yarzon admitted as he worked.  “But right now, I’m more curious on what happened since yesterday afternoon.”

There was the sound of Skywarp sighing.  “You tell it this time, TC,” he insisted.  “I already told it to Airfix….”

“No...you’d have the more ‘complete’ version of it,” Thundercracker countered.

“Ugh...fine.”

Yarzon could imagine Skywarp rolling his optics.

What followed, was a rather distressing tale.  Especially once he started talking about the lab and what they saw in there.  It became harder and harder to focus on tending to Nightfire as it went on.

“Kazak…,” he breathed when he was told about the tank room.  “What were they trying to do?” By this point, the spike was removed and Airfix could handle the rest on his own.  So Yarzon was able to turn to give the seekers his full attention.

“Nightfire would better be able to explain that part,” Thundercracker put in.  “Since he’s the one that can understand your language. He did scream ‘you won’t create more of me’ before ripping two of you to pieces.”

Yarzon shuddered, both at what Nightfire apparently said and what he did after.  The latter he really didn’t blame him for, since he knew what had been done to him.   _ By Quintessa...so Alpha Trion was right…. _ And Sentinel was right to question if Nightfire was a Cybertronian.  The implications….

He could only imagine how Nightfire felt at that moment.  Angry. Terrified. Hopeless. The bot was going to need a lot of reassurance once he woke up again.  When Skywarp resumed the tale, he found himself feeling happy that the seeker was willing to reach out to Nightfire, to give him comfort and the will to continue on for at least the moment.

And Nightfire returned that kindness, by taking the shot meant for Thundercracker.  A part of him did worry Nightfire did it because he didn’t feel worthy to live among those that, until recently, he thought was his own.

“OK, bro,” Skywarp stated at this point.  “You need to take over now as I wasn’t there for most of the next part.”

“Fine,” Thundercracker sighed.  “After Warp buggered off to find Airfix, Nightfire woke up...in the midst of a flashback apparently.  Got one of the Wrecker’s good in the face before we were able to snap him out of it.”

“Nightfire does have nightmares involving what was done to him,” Yarzon commented, sighing.  “So I’m not surprised.”

“Nightfire and I filled them in on what to expect in there, though Nightfire told them to document...not destroy...and get that info to Sentinel.”

“I requested a copy of their findings,” Airfix added.  “Just in case.”

“They are also going to guard to place, to make sure none your friends try to erase the evidence,”  Thundercracker continued. “At that point Warp and Airfix showed up...and here we are.”

“Thank you for telling me,” Yarzon said gratefully, bowing.  “I want to be surprised at the lengths my people will go to control others...but after all this time, I don’t think there’s anything they can surprise me with now.”

“Don’t jinx yourself now,” Airfix muttered.  Yarzon shrugged.

“So how did Nightfire wind up with you?” Skywarp was asking.

“He was ‘mailed’ to me in a stasis pod,” Yarzon muttered.  “Likely as an attempt on my life.”

“Wait...your kind attempt to kill each other?” Thundercracker seemed rather surprised at this.

“To remove rivals, usually.  We are a rather competitive species among our own,” Yarzon explained.  “In my case, many want me dead because I am a ‘soft spark’. I am against the culture of enslavement we have entrenched ourselves in...one I’ve been trying to stop for eons.”

“Doesn’t sound like you’ve been very successful,” Thundercracker grumbled, his arms folded.

“No...I have not,” Yarzon admitted sorrowfully.  “I am hoping this time, with Nightfire’s help and perhaps yours, I’ll succeed.”

“And how would  _ our _ story help with this?”

“Any evidence of my people’s true activities and motives I can gather and show to the right people, will help expose them for the monsters they really are.”

Thundercracker had opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again and looked at Skywarp. His expression was one of doubt and uncertainty.  “I’m not sure our story will help any,” he admitted with a sigh. “Warp would know better, I think.”

“Maybe,” Skywarp confirmed.  “Funny thing...I likely wouldn’t be  _ alive _ if it weren’t for your people.”

Yarzon raised a brow at that.  “I suspect there were some  _ strings _ attached to giving you aid.”

“Strings...heh….” Skywarp was giggling weakly.  “That’s one way to put it. Nightfire knows the gist of it already…but I think it would be only fair if he heard the whole thing.”

The Quintesson nodded in understanding.  “Fair enough.” He turned toward Airfix. “How is it going?”

“Just finished,” the flier replied.  “Reversing stasis and giving him the counter to the sedative.”

\--

This time as he returned to awareness, all the voices he could hear, initially incomprehensible, were familiar and welcoming.  He didn’t feel threatened, he felt  _ safe. _  There was pain, but it was dull, unlike last time.   He felt no need to lash out. To try to defend himself.  He just let himself relax and awaken slowly, giving his systems ample time to boot up.

Then he opened his optics, greeted by the familiar sight of Yarzon’s lab.  He sighed with relief.

“Nightfire?” Yarzon’s welcoming voice called from his right.

“Master….” Nightfire replied, turning his head to see him.

The Quintesson visibly flinched and rubbed his face with a tentacle.  “I’ve asked you not to call me that….” he groaned.

Nightfire just smirked and chuckled as he looked around.  Airfix was there, standing at his head, cleaning off his hands.  He was mildly surprised to see Skywarp and Thundercracker as well: he had half expected Thundercracker to  _ insist _ on leaving as soon as possible.  Granted, said seeker still looked a bit tense and he was standing a bit away from the rest.  

Skywarp, by contrast, was next to him, one hand lightly touching his left arm and he had a concerned expression on his face.  “Are you...feeling better?” he was asking.

Nightfire nodded as he carefully sat up.  “Physically at least…,” he replied honestly.  Mentally? His processor was still in turmoil over what he had learned.

“Your shoulder is fully repaired,” Airfix told him.  “But it will be sore for a couple of cycles, so take it easy.”

“Understood.”

“Nightfire, Skywarp told us what happened in there, but only you understood what you saw and heard in that one room,”  Yarzon started, his tone guarded. “And you fill us in?”

Nightfire shuddered, not really wanting to dwell on it.  He reminded himself that this was information Yarzon needed to fight back against his own people.  “Do you remember why I gave you ‘Thirteen’ as my name initially?”

“I do,” Yarzon replied.  “You said ‘Thirteenth attempt, first success’.”

“In that room...there were  _ exactly _ thirteen tanks that had two Cybertronian bodies with their spark chambers fused together….all of them had the phrase ‘Reproduction Project’ on their information panels.  All marked as failures...save one. That one...was marked ‘success’..and the two bots inside...were a seeker and a bike...and they both resembled me.”

Yarzon’s tentacles went completely still, his mouth open.  Behind him, he heard the sound of something dropping to the floor.

“I…,”  Airfix was trying to say as he apparently stooped to pick up what he dropped.  “I was shocked when Skywarp told me his suspicions before...but to hear it pretty much confirmed.”

“Kazak…,” Yarzon swore.  “And I just stated that my people couldn’t surprise me anymore.”  There was a pause before he asked. “Was there any indication on  _ how _ they succeeded?”

“On the tanks themselves? No,” Nightfire replied.  “But I did overhear the Quintessons Hog-ci and Mog-bol talking about it.  They said I was ‘Subject Zero’...said the only reason I was a success was because another Quintesson, Mara-Al-Utha, used ‘dark arts’...’magic’.”

Yarzon visibly twitched, his optics widening greatly.  “Mara-Al-Utha….” he gasped. “He was arrested by the Hierarchy nearly four vorns before I received you.”

“They said he was banished...which means his involvement in my creation must have been the reason their project was shut down and only recently restarted,” Nightfire concluded.  “They...wanted to ‘pair’ me with Skywarp or Thundercracker to try to make more like me….”

Both seeker’s understandably recoiled at that.

“That must have been when you decided to go and rip them to pieces…,” Skywarp muttered.  Nightfire nodded in acknowledgement.

“By the Allspark…,” Airfix breathed.

“Before that though...they mentioned else that may be of importance,” Nightfire stated.  “They mentioned a Quint named Yug-co...said something about developing a new control module for use in their creations.  They said it was nearly ready and that he already had one implanted in the subject he intended to use for a test run.”

Yarzon’s face looked grim.  “That sounds like they intend to use it on a sentient being,” he said gravely.  “But who?”

“Could be anyone they’ve done work on,” Airfix muttered, his frame shuddering.

“And the only one for certain it’s not is me…,” Nightfire mentioned. “They would have said so otherwise if it was.  Wait….” He looked at Skywarp. “Skywarp...you said they had to practically rebuild your body from scratch….”

The dark colored seeker nodded, his wings now down and frame trembling.  Thundercracker had walked up to him and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.  “Warp...I think it’s time to give them context….” he stated softly.


	11. Trigger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The twins tell their story.

Skywarp did not like where this was going.  One of those ugly things could have stuck something in him?  Something likely very bad? He didn’t like that.

Now it was time for them to know his past.  At the very least, there was both a medic and a friendly Quint here to check him after to see if anything was in him that shouldn’t be.  They’ll be able to remove it, right? He hoped so.

He trembled a bit as he collected his thoughts, the warmth of his brother’s hand giving him reassurance.  This was going to be difficult, as he never told anyone else their story and he was certain Thundercracker hadn’t either.  Skywarp took a deep intake before finally beginning.

“My spark landed on a bad patch of ground,” Skywarp started.  “It left me deformed, barely able to function. That’s from what I vaguely remember and what TC told me, at least.”

“We both were deformed...but mine wasn’t as bad and easily fixable,” Thundercracker admitted.  “Skywarp though...Caretakers of the time saw him as a hopeless cause…wanted to leave him to die…to rejoin the Allspark.  I refused to leave him, however, and eventually a Caretaker with at least half a spark took us in. Caring for Skywarp as he was…was expensive…trying to fix his problems even more so.  When his sigma manifested, that caused even more problems.”

“Without proper calculations, I damage myself when teleporting,” Skywarp explained.  “I didn’t have the…processor capacity…to do such calculations then. Nor was I  _ smart _ enough to  _ not _ do it anyway.”

“It increased the cost of care to the point where we were both eventually abandoned to the streets,” Thundercracker continued grimly.  “By then I was big enough to take care of him myself…somewhat. I did the best I could…though we were always hungry and we faced disdain and discrimination.  Disdain from our own kind, due to Skywarp’s ‘imperfection’…and discrimination from grounders who wanted to keep us ‘grounded’.”

“I vaguely remember a few that wanted to help us…,” Skywarp reminded him.

“Yeah, but I didn’t trust them.  I felt it was trick to hurt us,” Thundercracker pointed out.  “Then, while scavenging one day, a couple of grounders found Skywarp’s hiding place.  They wanted to take his wings. I came back as fast I could and tried to fight them off…but was I was too weak…and too small to do much.  They got one of his wings before he was able to teleport out their grasp.”

Skywarp twitched and shuddered at the memory.

“I tried carrying him out of there, but I didn’t get far before we were caught again.  Not by the grounders, but by a Quintesson Crime Suppression Squad. They had witnessed what happened and took the grounders into custody.  They took us as well. They separated us…and the next several orns were the most stressful of my life…as didn’t know what was happening to Skywarp:  I only knew he was alive. When I saw him again…he was…normal. I didn’t understand how or why…I was just glad he was back.”

“I don’t remember much of that time,” Skywarp admitted.  “I was likely kept drugged or in stasis. First full recollection I had was waking up to find my body was whole...complete...like TC’s is.  I remember how...different...it was: I could actually think and speak full sentences! Walk and run without a limp. I was...normal...like everyone else.”  

He wrapped his arms around himself.  “But as you said...there were strings attached to their ‘aid’.  They wanted to use me…my sigma specifically…for their own gain. They put me into intensive training over the next vorn, taught me to fight and kill.  How to use my sigma without hurting myself…gave me the cloaking mod. All with the hopes of turning me into an assassin for them.”

Airfix and Yarzon were looking at each other with worried expressions.  Nightfire just looked angry.

“I kept failing their test runs though…,”  Skywarp continued. “Because I kept getting bored…distracted...plus I never liked the idea of killing for no good reason.  So they eventually gave up. For ‘wasting their time’ they placed a massive debt on me…one they warned I had to keep making regular payments toward or else they would collect us both and do…bad things.  They said the same would happen if I told anyone…even my brother.”

“The debt had an insane interest rate attached to it,” Thundercracker explained.  “So bad that taking a normal job wasn’t enough to stay ahead of it.”

“Thus, why you started your racket,” Airfix muttered, to which they both nodded.

“Unfortunately, some of the modifications they did to me had a side effect:  I would occasionally get migraines, really bad ones. They were ‘nice’ enough to point me to a specialist that knew how to fix what was causing them, at least for a while.  Worse, the amount I still owed went back up each time.” He sighed. “An endless loop.”

“Interesting…,” Airfix muttered.  “Did they tell you  _ what _ was causing it?”

“Only that it was a compatibility issue with the modification they made to my processor,” Skywarp replied with a shrug.  “A mod they said was needed for my teleport calculations.”

The flier’s optics narrowed with suspicion.  “Sigmas do not require a modification to use safely,” he said grimly.  “A normal processor for your frame type should have sufficed.“

Skywarp felt the energon start to drain out of his face, his wings lowering.  “Oh no….,” he whined, backing away. “No no no….it’s me...isn’t it?”

A control mod...that meant they could take him over at anytime, right?  Make him move around and do things, likely horrible things, and he wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

He felt Thundercracker wrap a comforting hug around him from behind, reassurance and a bit of anger, being sent to him through their bond.  Nightfire by then, had slipped off the workbench and was hugging him from the front.

“There is only one way to find out for sure,” Nightfire suggested, looking up at him.  “Let Yarzon examine you. He would know what to look for.” Yarzon was nodding in agreement.

Skywarp bulked a bit at that.  While Yarzon had been nice and friendly toward him so far, he was still a Quintesson.  Thundercracker’s words from earlier stuck in his processor: what if Yarzon had been pulling their struts all this time?

“I know we don’t exactly have the best ‘relationship’,” Airfix commented.  “But I can assure you that I will be assisting him with this. After all, as a medic, I would know what  _ shouldn’t _ be there.”

Skywarp slowly nodded in acknowledgment.  Nightfire released him from his hug and stepped away.  Thundercracker, however, only tightened his.

“TC...please,” Skywarp pleaded.  “Let them do this. I trust them.”  He sent reassurance to him over the bond.

He heard a long sigh and slowly Thundercracker’s grip loosened, but still did not release him.  It was loose enough, however, that Skywarp was able to twist around to face him. He gave his twin an affectionate and reassuring nuzzle.  

“It will be OK, “ he told him, looking at him right in the optics.  There was so much worry and concern in his brother’s optics. At last though, Thundercracker nodded and let him go.

As he went to sit on the workbench, he felt uneasy, like he shouldn’t be allowing this.  Why? If he had something bad in him, getting it out would be a  _ good _ thing, right?  He jumped a little when he saw spherical white object suddenly appear next to him.

“It’s alright, just my little buddy,” Airfix assured him.  “You know...the one you tried to  _ steal _ once?”

“Eh heh….”  Skywarp sheepishly rubbed the back of his head as one of the drone’s jacks was plugged into his medical access port.  Once that happened he felt even more anxious and twitchy.

_ This is just an examination...something I’ve had done hundreds of times, why is this making me so nervous? _

He jumped again when the green light of the medical scan washed over him.

“Do you usually get this jumpy during examinations?”  Nightfire was asking, his tone teasing.

“No…,” Skywarp admitted.  “I don’t know why I’m acting like this.”

“I had set the scan to look for things not included in a basic adult frame,” Airfix was saying.  “Things not matching that criteria will be in orange.” There was a pause, then he uttered with surprise.  “Primus….”

“What?  What!?” Skywarp squealed, his wings going down so far and fast that they hit the workbench with a thud, making hm wince.  “I didn’t like how you said that!”

“I wasn’t expecting that much orange,” Airfix admitted.  “There’s dots of it eveningly spread across your protoform...just under the surface.”

“That is likely the cloaking device,” Yarzon suggested.  “See how there’s a thin line connecting each spot to a central point here near the pump?”

“Ah, I think you are right,” Airfix agreed.  “Looks it may utilize his color nanites for the actual cloaking function, clever.”

“Which means it’s easily self-repaired when damaged,” Yarzon added.  “Clever indeed.

“Clever?” Skywarp snorted.  “More like ‘sounds-expensive-as-all-frag-no-wonder-I-owe-them-so-much!’”  Did he just hear Thundercracker chuckle?

“We use this kind of tech in our ships, so it’s very common,” Yarzon pointed out.  “Scaled down for individual use is admittedly not seen much, so you probably do have a point.  Moving on...is there anything else of note?”

There was a tense period of silence.  Skywarp was aware he was gripping the edge of the workbench rather tightly.  Nightfire was standing in front of him, a reassuring hand on his right hand. Thundercracker had moved behind him for some reason.  Perhaps to help Airfix and Yarzon look?

“I can’t see anything else,” Airfix muttered.  Skywarp started to relax. “Perhaps I should rescan and exclude the outer surface of his protoform?”

“Would probably help,”  Yarzon agreed.

After a moment, another medical scan swept over him, making him tense once more.

“Oh…,”  Airfix breathed a couple nanos later.  “There is  _ definitely _ something odd attached to his processor….”

Skywarp’s breath hitched.  He heard Thundercracker mutter a few curses.  Nightfire muttered something as well, though what he said was  _ not _ in Cybertronian.   _ I really need to get him to teach me the curse words in Quintesson. _

“I can’t tell what that is from this,” Yarzon sighed.  “We’ll have take a closer look.”

He knew what that meant.  His anxiety spiked, nearly making him leap from the workbench in terror.  Only shear will kept him from doing so. “E-e-e-if you are going to look...m-ma-make it quick!” he told him.  “I don’t know h-how much longer I can...t-ta-take this. I-I-I’m usually knocked out for this….”

“Understood,” Airfix acknowledged.  He felt the flier touch his head panels, going for the release.

There was a faint ‘click’ sound, followed by a softer ‘hiss’ as the access panel to his processor slide away.  Skywarp stayed as still as possible, both out of consideration and pure fear at what they were going to find.

“Ah, I see it,” Yarzon stated after almost a klik.  “But that’s no control module I’ve never seen. I don’t think it’s one at all, to be honest.”

Skywarp breathed a sigh of relief.

“What is it then?”  Airfix asked.

The Quintesson was making a thinking sound.  “Looks like it’s a short range transmitter,” he replied.  “But for what?”

“Perhaps we can figure that out once we get it out of Skywarp,” Airfix suggested.  “Oh...looks like it has a connection to his datacore as well.”

“That suggests it’s controlled by a program installed on his datacore,” Yarzon said.  “We should check it before we do anything else.”

“Good idea.  Skywarp, I’m going to connect the drone to your data port, alright?”

He heard Thundercracker start to growl.  Most likely because he was angry strange things was in his body.

Skywarp nodded.  Nanos later he felt the access panel to said port open and something being plugged into it.  Before they had a chance to do anything, however, Yarzon apparently noticed something.

“The transmitter is blinking….”

_ What? _  Skywarp’s tank was telling him that wasn’t a good thing.

Then he felt ‘alarm’ and ‘panic’ from his twin, which was quickly followed by a cry of alarm and surprise from Airfix and Yarzon.  He felt the cables that were attached to him suddenly get ripped away.

“Thundercracker, what are you doing!?” Nightfire had cried, his optics wide in alarm.

Skywarp turned around just in time to see his twin rip the drone to pieces, his hands now covered by an extension that gave him a set of long, slightly curved and very sharp blades.  

_ When did he get that!? _

Thundercracker never told him he got weapon modifications!  What was going on!?

:Source of unauthorized access eliminated:  Thundercracker growled in basic.

That made things clear enough for even Skywarp to understand.

_ Oh no…. _

\--

They were wrong.  It wasn’t Skywarp that had the control mod, it was  _ Thundercracker _ .  Yarzon cursed himself for going for the obvious.  He started to back away, his tentacles quivering, mind racing.

:Scanning area for additional threats: Thundercracker stated, his optics started looking at each of them, starting with Skywarp.  :Designation: Skywarp. Threat Status: primary connection source, protect:

“Let go of my brother!”  Skywarp screamed at him, having slipped of the table.  His wings were high and twitching.

Thundercracker, or rather, the drone protocols that was currently controlling him, did not heed him.  He was looking at Nightfire now. :Designation: Subject Zero. Threat Status: target for reacquisition, expect violent resistance:

Nightfire growled in response, muttering a ‘you better believe it’.  He was then glancing at Skywarp, specifically his still open head. “Master...I think that thing is transmitting data.  That light is blinking rapidly,” he observed, then asked. “How do we stop it?”

:Designation:  Airfix. Threat Status:  unknown, need more data:

Yarzon had a feeling he knew what would happen when he was ‘scanned’, so he had hidden himself behind a large drone chassis he had been working on. He kept watch on Thundercracker through a gap between the arm and body.  “Ripping it out would be quickest,” he replied to Nightfire. “But would risk killing Skywarp.”

Thundercracker’s head had snapped around to the sound of his voice.  :Forth occupant detected, possible high priority target. Must verify:

_ Oh kazak…it must be going by my voice imprint. _

“Dying is not on my list of things to do today!” Skywarp whined as Thundercracker started moving toward Yarzon’s hiding place.

“No you don’t!”  Airfix had surged forward and wrapped his arms around Thundercracker’s chest, pinning his arms to his sides.  “Disconnecting the transmitter from the datacore may do it!”

“Got it!”  Nightfire acknowledged.  “Skywarp, kneel down for me.”

“I hope you know what you are looking for,” Skywarp was muttering as he complied.

:Threat Status, updated:  Thundercracker stated. :Activating long range defensive weapons:  One hand then transformed into some kind of blaster.

“Night! Look out!”  Airfix cried in warning as he tried to stop him.

Despite Airfix’s efforts, Thundercrack had aimed at Nightfire and fired not an energy blast, but something that could only barely be seen due to a faint distortion effect.  The lack of certain  _ visual _ danger was likely what delayed Nightfire’s reaction and he payed for it.

Nightfire started screaming, his hands over his audios as he was staggered back a few paces.  From how Skywarp winced and covered his left audio, he was hit by the edge of the weapons apparent area of effect.  Some kind of sonic weapon, Yarzon guessed.

A scream from Airfix drew his attention back in that direction.  Thundercracker managed to claw into his arm, making him let go by reflex.  The flier was then thrown over his shoulder and slammed into the ground. He was kept there by a firm foot on his chest.

That...wasn’t normal combat drone behavior.

_ Oh no…. _

“)It would appear…,(“ Thundercracker commented in Quintesson, a leering grin on his face.  “)That the list of known dissidents needs to be updated….(“

“Skywarp…,” Nightfire was moaning, rubbing his head.  “When did your brother learn Quintesson?”

“He doesn’t,” Yarzon replied for him.  “That’s an actual Quintesson controlling him now.  Yug-co, I presume….”

“Yarzon….” Thundercracker/Yug-co’s grin broadened.  “I was hoping it was you. As you can see...I have pushed the limits of the technology you invented….”  He spread his arms. “Beyond what you could even  _ dream _ of!”

“It is not right to turn another sentient being into a puppet!”  Yarzon snapped. “The whole purpose of my inventions was to move us away from slavery!  Not make it worse!”

“Please….”  Thundercracker/Yug-co stepped off Airfix and started stalking toward his hiding place.  “You know the food chain. The strongest or smartest rule over all….”

“How’s this for strength then!?”  Airfix cried as he tackled him to the floor.  “Yarzon! Run!”

Yarzon scampered away from his hiding place as fast as he could.  In the past, he would have headed right for his emergency exit, but no, he had friends to protect.   Friends he needed to achieve his ultimate goal. So instead he headed for Skywarp, whom looked very uncertain on what to do.

The room suddenly spun upward, as something hit the bottom of his frame.  He landed on his back, his head hitting the floor. Yarzon was seeing stars….

\--

His audios were still ringing slightly, but he saw what had happened.  Thundercracker/Yug-co had fired that weapon again, which sent Yarzon almost repulsor over head.  The Quintesson was on his back, but making no move to right himself. He was stunned, if not unconscious.

On the other side of the room, Airfix was struggling to keep Thundercracker pinned to the ground.  Despite the medic’s greater size, Thundercracker/Yug-co was clearly starting to get the better of him.

Nightfire looked at Skywarp.  The seeker looked both confused and panicked.  He got the feeling Skywarp wanted to help, but didn’t want to risk harming or even  _ killing _ his own twin in the process.   _ We need to break Yug-co’s connection to Thundercracker…. _

He could try to disconnect the transmitter from Skywarp’s datacore again, but he wasn’t sure which wire he needed to pull.  With Yarzon out and Airfix occupied, there was no one he could safely  _ ask _ .   _ The security console… _

Nightfire glanced toward it.  He knew there was a communication’s jammer function installed in the lab and he knew how to activate it.  However, Yug-co probably was expecting one of them to try that soon and would be watching for it to blast anyone that went for it.  Unless….

“Skywarp...how fast can you teleport?” he whispered.

“Eh?”  Skywarp looked down at him.  “It-it takes me five nanos to calculate a safe course….”

“Then listen carefully….” Nightfire told him what he needed to do in the clearest possible terms for him.  “Got it?”

“I-I think so….”

Just then, Airfix was thrown into the drone chassis Yarzon had hid behind before.  It came loose from it’s bracing and fell on him, pinning him. Thundercracker/Yug-co was back on his feet, a smug look on his face.

“Overclocking...what a wonderful function Cybertronians have….” Thundercracker/Yug-co cooed, now advancing on Yarzon, whom was only just starting to stir.  “Time to eliminate the weak….”

Nightfire charged him with a screech, crashing into him with all his strength.  He succeeded in pushing him back a few paces, further away from Yarzon. Thundercracker/Yug-co chuckled and easily grabbed him by both wrists, holding him aloft.

“Ah, Subject Zero…,” Thundercracker/Yug-co cooed.  “How I wish this device was in you instead. But no...you were too valuable for use for testing...due to your…’stubborn’ spark….”

_ ‘Stubborn spark’? What does he mean by that? _

“Um...what was after ‘communications’?”  Skywarp called out. “I-I forgot….”

“Jammer activation!”  Yarzon replied, now fully returned to his senses and struggling to get up.  “The rest should be obvious!”

Nightfire grinned with amusement to see Thundercracker/Yug-co’s optics widen in surprise and look Skywarp’s way.   Skywarp was at the security console, just as Nightfire had told him.

He was suddenly thrown aside as Thundercracker/Yug-co rushed toward Skywarp.  “Get away from there!” He was shouting.

Skywarp was looking back at him with a glare.  “Frag you!” he shouted before hitting the button.

“No!”  Thundercracker/Yug-co cried before lurching and staggering a few more paces before stopping.  He stood there, half bent over, arms dangling limp and not moving.

“TC?”  Skywarp was asking, cautiously starting to approach him.

:Connection to controller terminated: Thundercracker uttered in basic.  :Activating emergency protocols. Eliminate all witnesses: He then turned toward Nightfire and Yarzon.  :Priority Targets: Yarzon. Subject Zero:

_ Scrap!  _ Nightfire rushed for Yarzon, whom Thundercracker was charging for first.  He succeeded in reaching him first and shoving him out of the way. Nightfire felt pain as a claw swipe hit him in the back, mostly on his right winglet.  He retalulated by spinning around and socking Thundercracker in the face. The bot staggered back a bit, giving them both time get some distance.

“Skywarp!  Help Airfix!”  Nightfire shouted as they played ‘keep away’ with Thundercracker.

\--

_ When will this nightmare end!? _

Skywarp rushed to where Airfix was pinned.  The flier was struggling to free himself, but drone chassis had both arms effectively pinned.  Skywarp shoved against it with all his might, but it was not budging.

“Frag...what was he building here!?”  Skywarp gripped.

“I think this was going to be a construction drone,” Airfix groaned.  “That’s why it’s so heavy! If we can free one of my arms...I could disconnect that transmitter.  Try to roll it toward my feet!”

Skywarp nodded and started trying to push it in that direction. It was moving, but it was very slow going.  He glanced at the ‘chase’ that was happening close by. So far, Nightfire and Yarzon were keeping out of reach of the drone controlled Thundercracker.  But for now much longer? Thundercracker seemed to be getting faster and more erratic.

“Ugh...this would be faster if I knew how to activate Yarzon’s helper drones!”  Airfix lamented. “I’m totally going to get him to teach me after this!”

“That definitely sounds useful!”  Skywarp agreed as the chassis shifted a bit more, the main weight of it now on Airfix’s hips and groin.

“Oh that’s uncomfortable…,” Airfix groaned.

“Good thing we don’t anything important there!”  Skywarp joked with a smirk.

“You mean aside from our hip joints that allow us to walk? Yeah...nothing important!”  Airfix rolled his optics.

“Oh grow a humorous.”

“Now that was just bad.”

There was a sudden cry of alarm and thud.  They both looked in that direction to see Thundercracker had managed to catch Nightfire and had him pinned against the wall by the neck.  His free hand was starting to draw back.

_ No no no…. _  Nightfire was about to bite it and he was too far away and he didn’t have long range weaponry.  They needed to get that transmitter out  _ now! _

There was only one way to do that quickly he could think of and he didn’t like it.  He had to do it himself.  _ I’m sorry Nightfire...looks like I won’t be able to keep my promise to be your friend…. _

He reached into his head and pulled out his own processor.

“Skywarp! No!” Was the last thing he heard before everything went black….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *shifty eyes*
> 
> *runs*


	12. Hunt

Nightfire thought he was about to go to wherever a freak like him went when they died when Thundercracker suddenly stopped.  The seeker’s optics widened in horror as he dropped him, one hand clutching his chest as he turned around. Nightfire saw the same thing he did.

Skywarp, with his own processor in one hand, crumpling to the floor.

“Skywarp! No!”  Multiple people cried, though Thundercracker’s was by far the loudest.  Those that were mobile converged on the fallen seeker, Thundercracker reaching him first.  He cradled him in his arms.

“Skywarp...no...stay with me!” Thundercracker was crying, his optics clouded.

“Why….”  Nightfire whimpered kneeling beside him, one hand caressing Skywarp’s head.  “Y-you idiot...you can’t be my friend if you’re dead….”

“Removing a processor like that just puts you into immediate stasis lock!”  Airfix told them. “But he  _ will _ die if a processor is not put back in within a breem!”

“Then put it back in!”  Thundercracker demanded, taking the processor out of Skywarp’s limp hand.  Meanwhile, Yarzon was activating some drones to get that chassis off of Airfix.

“And risk you being controlled again!?”  Nightfire countered. “That would defeat the whole purpose of what he did!”

“Oh and you just happen to have another processor laying around here!?”  Thundercracker snapped.

“We do, actually,” Yarzon replied.  “Nightfire recently had his switched out for a more powerful one.  I still have his old one.”

“That may not work,” Airfix pointed out as he was finally freed.   “Processor effectiveness is dependant on frame size. Nightfire’s old processor was designed for a smaller frame than Skywarp’s:  it won’t have the power needed to support his frame for long, not to mention the extra power likely needed for his teleportation sigma.”

Thundercracker was starting to shake with distress.  “Th-then there is no hope?” he whined.

“No, I think there is a way,” Nightfire countered, his tone one of resignation.  “The one I currently have should be strong enough, right?”

“With power to spare…,” Airfix replied, his optics widening slightly.  “Nightfire...are you….”

“Give him mine…,” Nightfire replied with certainty.  “Put the old one back in me.”

“You are sure, Nightfire?”  Yarzon asked. “It may be some time before we can get another one like that.  It may set our plans back….”

Nightfire looked down at Skywarp’s limp body again: seeing those darkened optics sent shivers down his spinal strut.  “He was willing to accept me for who I am...to be my friend,” he stated softly. “He did this to save me...save all of us...so now I will return the favor.”

\--

Yarzon had to activate a couple of spare medical drones for the duel transplant, since Airfix’s was destroyed.   They didn’t have the full software upgrades Aifix’s had, but they only needed them to initiate stasis lock on Nightfire and monitor the vitals on both him and Skywarp.  The procedure itself was very simple, as processors were largely plug and play. In short order, it was done and stasis reversal was started on both bots.

Nightfire was the first to wake up.

“Di-did it work?”  he asked, looking over at Skywarp worryingly.

“His vitals have improved since the transplant,” Airfix informed him, as he started doing the minor repairs needed on Nightfire’s back.  “However, due to how he went into stasis lock, he’ll take longer to come to.”

“He’s definitely more aware,” Thundercracker confirmed, smiling, as he stroked Skywarp’s head.  “I’m getting ‘confusion’ from him. Impulsive aft must have thought he was going to join the AllSpark.”

“You can feel his emotions?” Yarzon asked, seeing an opportunity to learn more about this twin bond.

“Only when he wants me to,” Thundercracker chuckled.  “And it’s not so much ‘feeling’ his emotions but ‘knowing’ what he is feeling.  At least with us.”

“What do you mean?”  Nightfire asked.

“How strong a bond is between twins varies,” Airfix replied, Thundercracker nodding in acknowledgment.  “It depends on how soon the spark splits after leaving the Well and how close of a relationship the twins have in life.  Some have bonds so strong that their very lives are connected: if one dies, so does the other.”

“That is not the case with us, thankfully,” Thundercracker added.  “Though...as close as we are, I suspect we’d both want to follow if either one of us dies.  Trust me...I don’t to find out if that is true anytime soon….”

“Ugh…,”  Skywarp moaned then, his voice initially sounding rather mechanical. “I...still...function?”  The dark colored seeker’s optics finally onlined.

“Yes, you idiot!” Thundercracker replied, gripping his hand.  “We weren’t about to let your impulsive aft leave us so soon!”

“But...how?” Skywarp looked as confused as he sounded as he sat up.  “I thought...no processor...equal bye bye.”

“It would have if we didn’t have a spare processor on hand,”  Airfix replied, patting Nightfire on the back. “You can thank Nightfire for it.”

“Yeah and it’s apparently an even better one than your old Quintesson tainted one,” Thundercracker added.  “Which means, you have more processor power to actually  _ think _ with.”  He tapped his twin on the head.

“Pffft...me?  Think? Are you kidding me?”  Skywarp laughed, punching his brother in the arm playfully.  The brother’s then gave each other full embraces, their optics clouded in mutual joy that they hadn’t lost each other yet. Yarzon smiled at the scene.

However, he realized there were still some things that needed to be done before this situation was completely done with.

“Skywarp...we still need to look in your datacore and remove whatever program they were using run that transmitter...and control device,” he stated regretfully.

“I would like said control device removed as well,” Thundercracker growled, pulling away from Skywarp.  “Plus these...claw extensions taken out: they are not my ‘style’.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll get that control mod out,” Yarzon assured him as he pulled over the needed equipment for the datacore exam.  “I can’t make any guarantees about the weapon mods though, not my field.”

“Just the claws…,” Thundercracker clarified as Yarzon attached the needed cable to Skywarp’s datacore port: he noticed Skywarp was a lot calmer about this process this time.  “I kind of like the sonic blaster thing.”

“Just so long as you don’t use it on me again…,” Nightfire commented, finally sitting up, his repairs complete. “I think my audios are still recovering from that….”

“I can give you a check up once we give the twins the all clear,” Airfix told him as he assisted Yarzon. .

“Now, let’s see what doesn’t belong in your datacore,” Yarzon stated as he activated the device he had hooked up.  It didn’t take long to find it. “Ah...there it is.” He pointed to it on the screen. “Looks like it will be easily removed.”

“Thank Primus…,”  Skywarp muttered.

“I’ll be saving a copy of it, however,” Yarzon warned him as he started the removal process.

“Why?” Thundercracker questioned, his frame visibly tensing.

“Evidence to use against his people,” Nightfire told him, a faint growl in his tone.  “The more we have...the better.”

“But a program could be written by anyone with the right knowledge,” Thundercracker pointed out.

“Same could be said of devices like that transmitter,” Yarzon countered.  “However, every creator has a ‘signature’ of sorts that gets incorporated into their work.  That applies to both the physical and digital. It’s just a matter of finding it.”

The device beeped to signal it was finished with the task.  Yarzon took one last look through Skywarp’s datacore contents just to be sure there was nothing else suspicious in there.  “All done,” he told him the seeker as he pulled the jack out of his datacore port. “Do let either myself or Airfix know if you feel anything odd.”

“Got it,”  Skywarp acknowledged as he slipped off the workbench.

“Alright, Thundercracker, your turn,” Yarzon stated, patting the workbench with a tentacle.  “Let’s get that control mod out of you.”

Thundercracker looked apprehensive, but complied, sitting on the workbench.

“Just to be safe, we’re going to put you into stasis, alright?”  Yarzon warned him. 

Thundercracker nodded in understanding and lay down on his side.  Airfix attached the needed cables from the medical drone to him. Once he was in stasis they got to work and quickly found the control mod.  It was connected the seeker’s spinal strut, processor and datacore, the latter suggesting a possible ‘unwanted’ program there. ‘Clearing’ Thundercracker was going to take a bit more time….

\--

Nightfire wanted to wait to see if they succeeded in clearing Thundercracker, but he felt restless.  Impatient. He knew Yug-co was still out there and he feared he had more such control devices ready to be implanted in unsuspecting bots.  The problem was finding him. There was a possible clue, however.

“Skywarp.” He looked at the dark colored seeker, who raised a ridge in question.  “You said you had to go to a specialist for your ‘migraines’. Who was it?”

“Someone named ‘Fuse’.  Why?” Skywarp replied.

“Skywarp,” Airfix commented, looking up at them briefly from his work.  “I know every certified medic and specialist in this city...and ‘Fuse’ isn’t one of them.”    

Skywarp took a step back.  “Th-that means either she’s not legit or….”

“ _ She _ is a proxy front for a Quintesson,” Nightfire growled.  “Most likely Yug-co himself.”

“Oh scrap….”

“It would explain how...at ease...he was controlling Thundercracker,” Yarzon put in grimly.  The Quintesson then looked at him. “You are thinking of going after him.”

“He needs to be stopped before he turns anymore Cybertronians into remote puppets,” Nightfire snarled.

“I understand that, but.”  Yarzon raised tentacle. “Finding the proxy, doesn’t necessarily mean you find  _ him _ in the same area.  It’s a called a  _ proxy _ for a reason.  And you know how...flighty...my people are.  I’ll be moving labs myself once Thundercracker is finished...on that note.”

“Huh...why?”  Skywarp asked.

“There’s a good chance Yug-co figured out our location and will be revealing it to every other Quintesson that wants his head,” Nightfire replied.  

“Oh...then I guess we better see if we can stop that,” Skywarp stated, heading for the exit.  “I know where the office where the...proxy...is. Maybe we can find a clue on where he really is at?”

“You better disguise yourself, Nightfire,” Yarzon cautioned.  “After everything that has happened recently, every Quintesson will know for certain you are alive and running around.”

“Right.”  Nightfire sighed, took out the holoemitter from his subspace, put it on, then activated it.

“Ok, white, red and blue do  _ not _ suit you, Night,” Skywarp, whom had stopped to wait for him, commented.  He was chuckling a bit.

“I know,” Nightfire grumbled. “And call me ‘Skyfire’ when I look like this, please.”

“Hmm...I’ll just call you ‘Fire then...be easier for me to remember on the fly,”  Skywarp admitted.

“Speaking of flying,” Nightfire said as they walked toward the exit.  “Are you able to cloak while in alt-mode?”

“Of course!”  The seeker was beaming with pride.

“Then you stay cloaked once we get outside.  Your mug will likely be on the Quintesson ‘wanted’ list as well.”

“Oh….”  Skywarp’s wings dropped at that.  “So...how will you be able to follow me?”

At this Nightfire rolled his optics.  “You give me the location of that office so I can meet you there.”

“Ah ha...duh….”  Skywarp smacked himself upside the head.

After Skywarp gave him the location, they went their separate ways once they exited the lab.  The location actually wasn’t far from Yarzon’s lab, which was a bit worrying, but it was likely coincidental. It looked like a simple, small, office building, but Nightfire’s instincts were telling him there was more than what it seemed to be.  He started going for the front door, but something grabbed his shoulder and stopped him.

“Not here, ‘Fire.” He heard Skywarp whisper.  “The entrance I used is around back.”

He nodded in acknowledgement, then headed the way as casually as he could.  Thankfully it was starting to turn dark, so not many bots were roaming about.  “You know…,” he whispered as he rounded the side of the building. “This should have raised warning signs for you….”

“I only came where when I was in the middle of having a migraine…,” Skywarp’s disembodied voice replied, sounding slightly sheepish.  “I wasn’t exactly  _ thinking _ straight...not that ‘thinking’ is my strong suit to being with.”

Nightfire decided not to comment on that.

On the backside of the building there was a rather unassuming looking door.  Which was a of course locked. Beside it was a intercom device.

“Normally, I would activate that to announce myself so ‘she’ could open the door,” Skywarp told him.  “But that probably wouldn’t be a good idea this time around, would it?”

“No, it would not,” Nightfire agreed, pleased the seeker was using his head.  “Is there another way to open this door?”

“Let me see if I can open it from the inside,” Skywarp offered.

“Be careful of traps,” he managed to warn him just before he heard the now familiar sound of rushing air when the seeker teleported.  A couple kliks later, the door opened and Nightfire cautiously stepped in.

“Doesn’t look like anyone is ‘home’,” he commented quietly as the door closed behind him again, plunging them into darkness.  A nano later, the lights came up and Skywarp decloaked, he was standing next to a light switch. As he deactivated his holoemitter, he looked around.

It was a small office, which was only simply furnished.  This most likely to allow the owner to relocate quickly if needed.  Sitting behind the desk was a limp robotic form, blue and yellow in coloration.  It looked like a bike frame Cybertronian, but the darkened optics told them no one was home upstairs.  Nightfire slipped around behind it and checked the back and found what he was looking for quickly.

“Just as I suspected...this is a proxy,” he stated, pointing out the signal receiver on the back of the neck.  “A rather sophisticated one.”

“Scrap...so I was being ‘treated’ by a Quint the whole time…,” Skywarp sighed.  “What now?”

Nightfire looked around the office again.  There was only one other door, but when he opened it he just saw a storage room.  “What usually happened when you came here?”

“Uh...we’d chat a bit...she would knock me out.  I’d wake up a bit later feeling better and leave.”

“How are you knocked out...for how long?”  Nightfire asked as he started to check the walls.  

“I don’t actually ‘see’ what she...er...he...does,”  Skywarp admitted. “But he touches something to the back of my head.  As for how long...usually a breem...sometimes two.” 

Nightfire narrowed his optics.  “Stasis is initiated through the medical port...not the data or sensor net ports…,” he stated.  “That program Yarzon removed from your datacore must have had more than one purpose.”

Skywarp whined and rubbed the back of his head.  “Like...what?”

Nightfire was in the storage room checking the walls there.  He had noticed one wall had nothing up against it. When his hand went right through it, it became clear why.  “Like being able to guide you to his  _ true _ workplace,” he growled.  “Without resistance….”

He heard an odd sound then for a nano, like metal vibrating.  Nightfire turned to look for the source and saw it was Skywarp.   His wings were hiked up as far as they could go, the wing tips almost touching the ceiling.  The expression on his face was imply  _ livid _ .

“First the debt...then I find out I’m a walking transmission device that turns my brother into a puppet,”  the seeker was snarling, his hands clenching and unclenching. “Now I find out I may have been guided around like a mindless  _ drone _ !? I don’t know the right curse words to properly  _ express _ how I feel about that.”

“Hmm... _ xa’iaka _ comes to mind,” Nightfire told him.  “There’s no Cybertronian equivalent, but it roughly translates to ‘abhorrent bastard’.”

The seeker looked thoughtful for a moment.  “Better...but still doesn’t quite feel  _ strong _ enough.”

Nightfire chuckled faintly: he knew how that felt.  “Come on, let’s see if anyone is  _ home _ ,” he said as he walked through the holographic wall.

“And if there is?” Skywarp whispered, sounding to be right behind him.

“If it’s a Quint...we kill them,”  Nightfire replied bluntly. “If there’s other bots. Rescue.”  He glanced back, but didn’t see the seeker: Skywarp likely cloaked.

They stayed quiet as they walked down a simple looking hall, Nightfire keeping an optic out for traps or alarms.  On the other end of the hall was a open doorway and they could see a larger space beyond it. Nightfire hid himself behind the doorways threshold before looking in.

The space beyond was easily three times the size of the office area and definitely a Quintesson lab.  In the center of the room was a medical style berth, which was thankfully empty. Around it was standard medical monitoring equipment, but a couple of the machines he didn’t recognize.  Along the walls were various consoles and workbenches. On either side on the back end were two doorways, likely storage rooms, though Nightfire wouldn’t be surprised if one of them had the emergency exit.

There was no indication the resident Quintesson was home, yet there was no sign he had started to pack up to move house either.  However, none of the equipment he could see looked  _ irreplaceable _ , so the likelihood the Quintesson just up and abandoned the place was still there.  That meant finding anything damning on the Quintessons here was likely pretty low.

_ No harm in checking anyway. _  Nightfire started to step into the room when he heard something from one of the back rooms.  A part of him hoped it was Skywarp exploring, as idiotic as it would be considering they had no idea what kind of traps were here.  When he heard a distinctive Quintesson voice a nano later, however, he smirked and went back into hiding.

“)Foolish Car-dal….(“   Nightfire peeked to see a science caste Quintesson emerge from the left back room, looking rather perturbed.  “)No confidence in my tech at all! There is no need to move! The emergency programing on that device will take care of any complications!(“ He was at one of the workbenches now.  “) Soon, that seeker will be guided here and be glorious proof of my  _ brilliance _ and my vision for proxy tech will become  _ renowned _ !(“

“I’m afraid your day of ‘brilliance’  has been permanently  _ canceled _ , Yug-co….“  Nightfire stated with a grin as he stepped out of hiding and started walking toward him.

Yug-co squawked and spun around so fast his bottom tentacles nearly became entangled with each other.  His optics widened when he saw him. “Subject Zero....Kazak...I forgot! Y-you….“ Yug-co apparently became glossa tied in his panic to get away from him.

“I, what, Quint?“  Nightfire asked, taking great enjoyment in this, but also curious on what he was trying to say.

“Y-you are...y-ou are….“  Yug-co suddenly started to bolt, only to slam face first into something invisible.

Nightfire’s grin broadened as that ‘invisible’ thing grabbed Yug-co by the arm tentacles and lifted him up easily.  Skywarp then decloaked, a smirk of his own on his face. “Hi,” he greeted.

“Ahhh!”  Yug-co screamed, now speaking Cybertronian.  “How are you still alive!?”

“You know...you kinda remind me of cybersquids my bro and I used to catch in the marshes for fun,” Skywarp pondered, ignoring the question.  “Never hurt them...always put them back. But you….” Skywarp shook the Quintesson, whom squealed in fear. “I think you are too dangerous to be put back.  What do you think, ‘Fire?”

“I agree,” Nightfire stated, now standing next to him, his arms folded.  “You do the honors, Warp.”

“Oh! My first squid kill!”  Skywarp cried gleefully, his free hand transforming into a dagger.

“No, no no! Wait!” Yug-co pleaded, his free tentacles waving frantically.  “I’ll take the devices out of you! I’ll have your debt removed! Please! I’ll do anything!”

Skywarp visibly faltered at the mention of the debt.  He looked at Nightfire, uncertain.

“Don’t believe him,” Nightfire growled.  “The moment you allow him near a console he’ll activate the security systems of this place and turn us into scrap.”

“I’m a Quint of my word!”  Yug-co insisted.

Nightfire started chuckling, which quickly escalated into full blown laughter.  One that made Yug-co still and go pale. One that made Skywarp visably shiver a bit.

Then, just as abruptly it started, it stopped, Nightfire now having an expression of deadly seriousness on his face.  “The  _ only _ Quintesson I will  _ ever _ believe is Yarzon,” he stated flatly.  “The rest of you can rot in a slag pit!”  He nodded toward Skywarp to go ahead.

Yug-co by then was completely limp, a look of utter defeat on his face.  He did gasp when Skywarp finally stabbed him in the chest, his tentacles giving one last shudder before falling still.   Skywarp dropped the corpse unceremoniously onto the floor, then knelt down and cut off a tentacle. Nightfire tilted his head in question.

“Proof of deed,” Skywarp explained as he subspaced it.  There was no joy, yet no remorse, in his tone. It was rather...businesslike.   “Something they taught me to do when doing assassinations.” What he said next had some emotion to it.  A tone of realization. “Though...this is the first time I’ve actually...done a kill.”

Nightfire nodded in understanding.  “Let’s go home, Skywarp,” he said softly, patting his arm. “We are done here...and I’m sure your brother is awake by now and flipping out about you not being there.”

Skywarp laughed as they started to head out.  “I can tell he’s not awake yet,...but once he is he probably will scold me for not waiting for him so he could join the fun.”

“If things go our way, Warp...we’ll  _ all _ have plenty of...squids...to hunt and kill soon enough.”  After a moment, he added, mostly out of curiosity. “And just how do you catch cybersquid, anyway?”

“We’ll show you sometime... _ if _ you teach me more Quintesson curses!”

Nightfire laughed.  “Deal.”

\--

It took a bit more effort to remove the control device than originally assumed, as that insidious device was well integrated into Thundercracker’s systems.   Yarzon had to stop after successfully disconnecting it from one part to give the seeker a quick exam to ensure there was no damage or other side effects. Thankfully Airfix was there and two pairs of optics for this was  _ always _ better than one for things like this.

Once the control module was removed, he turned to the datacore.  Like with Skywarp, there was a suspicious program in there that needed to be removed.  That was easily done. So was removing the claw extensions, surprisingly enough. They gave Thundercracker one last look over to ensure they didn’t miss anything before reversing stasis.

While they waited for the seeker to awaken, Yarzon assisted Airfix in repairing the damage the flier received from the scuffle.  “I could probably explain this away by saying I had a particularly problematic patient,” Airfix was saying. “Wouldn’t be too far from the truth.”

“Probably, but why walk into work looking like you got sat on by a cyberbull?”  Yarzon pointed out. “Not good first impression.”

“Ah, but it would show my toughness!” Airfix countered.  “May impress a good looking bot.”

“Pfft...still hoping, are you?”  Yarzon teased.

“Right now not a priority, but someday!”

Yarzon chuckled good naturedly.  Despite the lack of  _ need _ for close companionship, some Cybertronians still seem to desire it.  He wondered if Nightfire would ever find someone like that for him.  _ He has a hard road ahead of him in general. _

He frowned, remembering what they recently discovered... _ confirmed _ their worst fears.  That Nightfire wasn’t from the Well...and Nightfire now knew this.  The Quintesson knew he had to be in turmoil over this, but so far the bot wasn’t showing signs of it.  This meant he was keeping it inside, not a good thing. There will likely be a meltdown soon and Yarzon felt there was little he could do so soothe it.  As he wasn’t Cybertronian, any words of encouragement likely wouldn’t hold much weight.

“What’s on your processor, my friend?” Airfix asked, breaking him out of his thoughts.

“Nightfire,” Yarzon stated simply.  “I worry about his mental state.”

“As do I…,” Airfix admitted.  “We’ve been teaching him all this time that he’s Cybertronian, then we find out that...technically...he’s not.  Bitter energon to swallow.”

“‘Technically’?”

“If his spark was really formed from the fusion of two other sparks, then I’d feel he is still Cybertronian...just not... _ Wellborn. _ ”

“Which could still carry a lot of social stigma,” Yarzon reasoned.

“It would…,”  Thundercracker’s voice drew their attention.  The seeker was awake and sitting up, his expression downcast.  “While we were waiting for Airfix and Warp to arrive outside the lab, Nightfire told the Wreckers what the Quints were doing in there.  The reactions over the mere  _ possibility _ were not...promising.  I could tell Nightfire was not taking it well.  Thankfully, Wheeljack stopped the discussion before it could have gotten even darker.  He probably would have snapped….”

“Kazak….” This did not bode well.  “But you and your brother didn’t care where he came from?”

Thundercracker sighed, a look of shame on his face.  “While Warp embraced him immediately...I did not. When I first figured out that he wasn’t, ‘Wellborn’ as Airfix put it, I was quite willing to just leave him in that lab…,” he admitted.  “Then Warp told me what was really done to him...and reminded me that we weren’t so different from him. I finally fully understood when I heard the comments the Wrecker’s were indirectly making toward Nightfire...as I saw myself and my brother when we were sparklings...deformed and unwanted, just because we were different.”

The seeker slipped off the workbench and stood at his full height.  “So, I...we...know what it’s like to not be wanted,” he continued softly.  “To know how it felt to have no one to turn to, to only have yourself you can trust.”  He looked to the floor. “All simply because of something we had no control over. We had no control over how our protoforms developed….” He looked at them.  “And he had no control over how his spark came to be. It wasn’t fair to judge us for our bad luck...and it’s not fair to judge him due to where his spark came from.”

“Very true words, Thundercracker,” Yarzon stated, impressed.

“Yes, wise ones for a bot your age,” Airfix added.

Thundercracker blushed.  “Life on the streets make you grow up fast,” he was muttering sheepishly, looking away.  It was then he finally noticed a couple of bots were missing. “Where’s Nightfire and Warp?”

“They went to visit that ‘specialist’,”  Airfix replied. “Whom we suspect is not ‘legit’ and is a proxy front for a Quintesson.”

Thundercracker visibly stiffened.  “Without me!?” he exclaimed. “I wanted to be a part of that!”

“Unfortunately time was of the essence,”  Yarzon explained. “My people tend to relocate quickly when they feel their location is compromised.  I only haven’t started moving myself because I wished to wait for their return first.”

“But you told them yourself that Yug-co was not likely anywhere near there,” Airfix reminded him.

“It all depends on how he has his ‘operation’ set up,” Yarzon admitted, with a shrug.  “My earlier statement was a generalization on my people’s ‘habits’.”

“Well...I can tell you Warp at least is very happy,” Thundercracker announced.  “Something good must have happened.”

“So the mission was a success?”

“Not necessarily,” Thundercracker grumbled, folding his arms.  “My twin can be easily amused. At best it means nothing  _ bad _ happened to them during their outing.”

“All things considered, that’s good enough for me,” Yarzon sighed.  At that moment the proximity sensor alerted them that someone was approaching.  All three of them stiffened, tensed as Yarzon looked at the security monitors. He immediately relaxed.  “Nightfire and Skywarp have made it back,” he announced as he deactivated the security systems briefly so they could get in.

“Seriously?”  Skywarp was saying as they entered the main lab.  “That’s a serious insult for them? Sounds like an insult a sparkling would use.”

“‘Peckerhead’ sounds silly to us,” Nightfire was explaining, deactivating his holoemitter.  “But there are nuances to the term that mean beyond the literal word.”

“It means ‘you are not very bright’,” Yarzon put in.  “To my people insulting our intelligence is the worse kind of insult.  And really, Nightfire.” He folded his tentacles across his chest. “Teaching him our insults?”

“Curse words too!”  Skywarp beamed. “They are fun to say!”  He then spouted a few Nightfire apparently already taught him.

Yarzon rolled his optics. “Did anything come out of your mission?” he asked.

“A mission I would have liked to have been on,” Thundercracker growled, his own arms folded.

“Oh don’t grind your gears, bro...I got you a souvenir.”  At this, Skywarp pulled out something from his subspace and tossed it at him.  It was a severed Quintesson tentacle. 

“Ew!”  Thundercracker cried, dropping it almost as soon as he caught it.  “Really, Warp!?”

“So Yug-co was actually there?” Yarzon queried, suppressing a shudder.

“Indeed he was,” Nightfire replied. “He had a small laboratory connected to the office he used the proxy in.  He was quite confident in his talents and was ignoring his superior’s ‘suggestion’ to move his operation. We...showed him he should have listened to them….”

Yarzon sighed.  If it wasn’t cowardice...it was arrogance that determined their response to a situation.  “So he has informed his superiors about what he found here,” he stated. “That means we are all at risk now.”

“To be fair, Skywarp and I were apparently always on their radar,” Thundercracker pointed out.

“Though now they will know you are associated with me...thus will be hunted,” Yarzon told him grimly.  “I believe it is best we go our separate ways and minimize contact with each other.” They were all nodding in agreement, but he knew what he said next will cause a negative reaction.  “That means you too, Nightfire.”

“Huh? Wh-what do you mean, Master?”  Nightfire asked, looking confused.

“It is time for you to go out on your own.”

Nightfire’s winglets dropped and he started to tremble.  “No... _ no _ ...I can’t!”  he whined. “I’m not ready!  Not with what I recently learned!”  Behind him, Yarzon saw the twins start to ‘talk’ to each other with their wings.

“Nightfire, you knew from almost the very start this cycle would come,” Yarzon tried to assure him.  “It is a bit sooner than I’d like, but now we have no choice. One of us must remain free if your people are to open their eyes to the truth!”

“But are they really  _ my _ people?”  Nightfire cried.  “I’m not from the Well and I already know many would not accept someone like me!  I would be an outcast...if not worse….”

“Then you stay with those that  _ would _ accept you,” Thundercracker stated, the twins approaching and standing on either side of him.  Skywarp on his right, Thundercracker on his left. “After all-”

“There’s safety in numbers!”  Skywarp added. “Besides...we’ve decided-”

“To make you-” Thundercracker continued.

“Our honorary brother,” Skywarp finished.  The dark colored seeker then grabbed Nightfire and lifted him up in a hug, his twin joining in.  “And brothers take care of each other!” Both twins were beaming as they started nuzzling him affectionately.

Poor Nightfire was so overwhelmed that he started sobbing.

_ You don’t just have friends now, Nightfire...you have a family. _  Yarzon felt his own optics start to cloud up.


	13. Identity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone's role is decided and Nightfire learns more about the ones that were used to create him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise last chap!

Between the five of them, they were able to work out the details of what they needed to do.  Nightfire would stay with Skywarp and Thundercracker. All three of them would become datarunners and between them would use that income to keep Skywarp’s debt in check.  The twins were also provided with holoemitters and ‘aliases’ to use when working. Skywarp took the name ‘Skyquake’ and Thundercracker ‘Dreadwing’, though Skywarp griped about being the ‘ugly green one’.

With three bots going to be working as datarunners, thus tripling their chances of getting damning evidence on the Quintessons, Yarzon realized they needed a better method of gathering it.  They decided on a mass storage device that they could copy anything they gathered onto quickly and easily, which Skywarp would then bring to Yarzon for transferring, decryption and translation.   Having a teleporter on their side made getting information between them so much easier. 

As for getting the intel to Sentinel, the Prime proved his earlier words about having ‘optics and audios’ in many places.  Shortly after Yarzon had set up in his new lab and Nightfire settled in with the twins, he had a surprise visitor.

Ravage.  One of Soundwave’s mini-con minions.  The felinoid bot had a datadisk for him, which contained access codes that would enable Yarzon to transfer his intelligence directly to the investigation team Sentinel had set up.  After some back and forth correspondence, Yarzon was able to increase security of this connection to help keep it under the Quintesson radar. 

The only problem they couldn’t really resolve was Airfix.  Being an emergency physician, he couldn’t easily change identities or move locations without drawing suspicion.  Yet, his very stasis would make it difficult for the Quintessons to act against him without drawing unwanted attention, so the best thing they could do was have him continue as normal.  Mostly normal, at least. For security reasons, Airfix wouldn’t be able to visit him very often. Thankfully, they had set up a secure comm connection between all of them, so they could still talk to each other.

Still, being pretty much isolated after having company for so long was going to take some getting used to again.  

\--

_ A couple joors later…. _

Nightfire moaned faintly as he came out of stasis. Briefly, he was confused on what was going on, but he quickly remembered.  He was here to get a processor upgrade, a replacement, actually, for the one he gave to Skywarp. Opening his optics he saw the familiar face of Airfix.

“How do you feel?” the flier was asking.

“Normal...if there is such a thing for someone like me,” Nightfire replied softly., as he sat up.  “I can tell I have more processor power to work with, however.”

Airfix was nodding.  “Before you leave, I have something else for you.”

Nightfire raised an optic ridge, at which, the medic handed him a couple of vials.  “What are these?” he asked.

Airfix sighed and glanced around a bit nervously before speaking lowly.  “The preliminary investigation into that lab you were taken to has been completed.  I was able to get...samples of CNA from the victims found there.”

Nightfire started to tremble as he looked at the vials.  “So...these are the samples for….”

“Ebonscream and Starsong,” Airfix confirmed.  “The investigation team was able to confirm their identity, but we do not have the tech yet to compare their CNA with yours.”

“Thus currently cannot confirm they used them to create my current frame,” Nightfire muttered, clasping the vials now.  “I would think it would be obvious, considering….”

“The obvious answer is not necessarily the correct one,” Airfix reminded him.  “Someday we’ll have the tech to confirm our suspicions, but I’m leaving that choice to have that confirmed up to you.”

Nightfire nodded with understanding and subspaced the vials.  “Anything else?”

“That lab was destroyed,” Airfix explained. “The Wreckers were quite  _ eager _ to do it themselves.  In fact, from what I’ve heard, they  _ insisted _ they be allowed to do it.”

He chuckled a bit.  “Wheeljack did want to blow it up almost from the moment I told them what it was being used for.”

“There is also something else you may be interested in.”  

“What is that?”

“The bodies that were recovered from there are being prepared for proper burial,” Airfix replied.  “The ceremony is scheduled to be held in a couple of cycles. If you wish to attend, I can give you the location and time.”  

Nightfire lowered his head, feeling uncertain.  “Do I have the right to attend such a thing?” he asked, rubbing his arms.

“At the very least, you can see how much closure you have given the others that will be attending. Maybe you’ll meet bots that knew those two, especially Starsong.”

That was a point, but he found it odd on how he said that.  “Why the focus on Starsong?”

There was a faint smirk on the flier’s face.  “Because I met Ebonscream once.” He frowned briefly as he added.  “Though I had to see the body for myself to be sure it was the same bot.”

That made him sit up straight.  “Really? When?” he asked curiously.

“It was while I was traveling with Ratchet and Hammercircuit to Iacon to learn medicine,” Airfix explained.  “He and Wheeljack stopped a rival group from taking us by force.”

Nightfire leaned forward with interest.  “So he was a Wrecker?”

“Indeed, a senior member if I remember right.” Airfix was smiling.  “And he proved it with his swordsmanship: the bot moved like the wind.  He was calm, confident and brave...yet seemed hesitant to actually kill anyone.  A good spark. You share most of his coloration, actually.”

Nightfire looked down at himself on reflex.  Knowing this did help him picture the bot better in his processor.

“Other Wreckers would be able tell you more about him,” Airfix admitted.  “So, another reason for you to attend.”

“If I can get the bearings to ask…,” Nightfire muttered.   “Asking may bring up questions I’d rather not answer to just anyone….”

“It is your choice, Nightfire.  Just keep in mind that event may be the only chance you have to find someone that knew Starsong.”

Nightfire breathed a sigh.  Knowing more about them would help him figure out who he is, he believed.  Though he still felt like he was unworthy to even go.

“Alright...give me the information,” he finally said. “I’ll...think about it.”

\--

_ Couple of cycles later _

There were quite a few bots here, saying their goodbyes, getting their closure.  For Nightfire, however, he doubted he would truly have that. He almost didn’t come to this:  it was pretty much a last klik decision. Seeing all these bots nearly made him turn around and go back home.

He forced himself to stay though, remembering why he decided to come.  The thought of asking the attending bots if they knew Ebonscream or Starsong, as Airfix suggested, did pass through his processor a few times.  To find out what they were like...and in turn, perhaps discover who he was.

However, he realized that would raise uncomfortable questions he wouldn’t want to answer.  Questions like ‘how did you know them?’ when he really  _ didn’t _ , just had the impression he  _ should _ have.  Which would no doubt lead to suspicion towards him.  Suspicion he didn’t want or need. Thus, he hung back a respectable distance from the proceedings, not wanting to draw attention to himself.

Nightfire did at least, spot which graves belonged to the two bots he was interested in.  One of them, Ebonscream, was surrounded by a quite a few bots, some of them he recognized as the Wreckers that greeted them outside the lab they escaped from.  Frag, all of them were likely Wreckers, from what Airfix told him about Ebonscream. 

He Wheeljack was among them.  It was hard to tell at this distance, but Wheeljack looked particularly despondent and upset.  This individual must have meant a lot to him.

In contrast, he noticed Starsong’s grave had  _ no one _ around it.  Actually, occasionally a Wrecker would scowl in its direction.  One loved...the other apparently hated: this did not make him feel good about himself.  How would the Wreckers, especially Wheeljack, feel if they found out he was the result of the experiment involving those two?  He found himself not wanting to find out.

So he continued to hang back, watching as bots finished saying their farewells and depart.  Soon enough, only a handful of bots were left. Of the Wreckers, only Wheeljack and one other were still around, but they were at a distance, talking.  As for the other remaining bots, they were at the other graves.

With the sky starting to darken, he finally found the courage to approach the two graves himself.  Once there he looked between them, feeling lost and confused. 

_ Who were you?  What were you like? _

One a Wrecker...a member of a group that was honorable and righteous.  The other? Apparently an enemy. What does that make him? He didn’t know.  Nightfire sat between the graves and sighed. He didn’t know how long he sat there before someone noticed him.

“Hey, you alright?”

“Gah!” He jumped at the voice, turning sharply around to face the speaker.

It was the other Wrecker Wheeljack was talking to before.  He stood about his height, but was green, big and round in shape.  His first thought when he saw him: wrecking ball. Despite the tough looking exterior though, this bot was looking at him with soft, apologetic optics.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,” he was saying.

“No no, it’s alright,” Nightfire said quickly, waving a hand dismissively as he stood up to face him properly.  “I was lost in my own thoughts and not paying attention to my surroundings.”

“I remember you from the incident at that lab.  Nightfire, was it?”

Nightfire nodded, feeling a spike in anxiety.

“I’m Bulkhead, glad to see you have recovered from your injuries.”

Nightfire snorted faintly.  “At least the physical ones…,” he muttered, looking down at the graves once more.

Bulkhead was looking down at them with him.  “No one deserves what was done to them,” he stated softly.  “Not even them.” He nodded at Starsong’s grave. “But Jackie disagrees with me on that.”

“Why?” Nightfire asked, glancing up at him.

“They were a Siren,” Bulkhead replied, his tone a bit flat. “Bots that, once they decide they want you, will do everything they can to get you.  Jackie….” Bulkhead looked behind him. Nightfire saw Wheeljack in the distance, his back to them both. When Bulkhead spoke again it was low, like he was saying something he shouldn't.  “Barely escaped them with his sanity intact, long ago. He’s held a grudge of against them ever since. Losing Ebonscream like this...does not help.”

“Ebonscream must have meant a lot to him,” Nightfire commented carefully, seeing an opportunity to learn more.

“He was his teacher, mentor...friend, though he was a snarky aft at times,”  Bulkhead explained. “But he had a good spark in him. Believed everyone deserves a second chance...a chance to right their wrongs.  It was something he was trying to teach Jackie before he disappeared a few vorns ago.” A sigh. “Now we know what happened...to think he died fused to one of our enemies.”

This was not helping him any.  Sure it was good to hear more confirmation that one half of his ‘spark donor’ was a good, honorable bot, but the other one?  Sounded almost like a Quintesson. A shudder involuntarily passed through his frame. Thankfully, Bulkhead didn’t notice.

A thought entered his processor, a frightening one.  There was chance Wheeljack noticed the resemblance between himself and Ebonscream and Starsong: Airfix himself told him he shared much of Ebonscream’s color scheme.  He must have so many conflicting thoughts in his processor if so. “H-how is he handling this?” he asked.

“Not well,” Bulkhead replied grimly.  “And I can tell he’s not telling me something.”  There was a pause. “He...asked me to tell you this:  ‘I don’t hate you.’”

Nightfire raised a brow and tilted his head in confusion.  “What did he mean by-” It hit him and his optics widened.

_ He doesn’t hate me for being ‘part’ Siren. _  Wheeljack  _ did _ figure him out.  He may have figured him out even before he went into that lab, actually, considering how he reacted to his fellow Wrecker’s comments about ‘non-wellborn’ sparks.  Perhaps, he wouldn’t be as shunned as he thought? Still, best to err on the side of caution with this. If not for the fact he is non-wellborn, but the fact he was  _ Quintesson created _ .  Especially in this time of growing tension.

“Tell him ‘thank you’,” he told Bulkhead.  The Wrecker nodded and left him then, rejoining Wheeljack.  Wheeljack finally looked at him and their optics met. There was some apprehension and uncertainty there, but not hate, just like he said.  Wheeljack nodded once, a farewell, before turning and leaving with Bulkhead.

Nightfire watched them go for a moment, before looking down at graves once more.  Talking to Bulkhead answered some questions, but it didn’t answer the most important one.  

“Who am I?” he asked the graves.  The dead, unfortunately, do not answer.

“You are who you chose to be,” a voice stated behind him.

For the second time in less than a breem, he felt like he jumped out of his frame.  With an annoyed sigh, he turned to face this new speaker, to find a familiar face this time.

“Orion,” he stated, his expression softening.  “What are you doing here?”

The data clerk smiled at him pleasantly.  “I was tasked with documenting the proceedings for the Archives,” he replied.  “I am curious as to your presence here, Nightfire.”

“I discovered these unfortunate bots,” Nightfire answered simply, gesturing toward the graves.  It was a true enough answer. “Nearly became one of them.”

“You seem particularly interested by these two,” Orion observed, gesturing to the two graves he stood between.

“Because, of the ones found in that lab, these two...resonate with me,” he replied quietly.  “This...and other recent events, have left me with questions on my worth to society, as my origins are...questionable.”

Orion was frowning, his brows furrowed in thought.  After a klik, he reached out and placed a hand on Nightfire’s shoulder.  “Nightfire, it is not your origins that matter: it is what you do with the life you have been given.”

He wanted to believe that, he really did.  “Not everyone sees it that way…,” he muttered, his optics downcast.

“That is their folly,” Orion countered bluntly.  “No one should be judged for that they have no control over.  It causes unnecessary pain and anguish. When you encounter such individuals, you prove them wrong.”

“How?”

“By being true to yourself.”  Orion smiled at him once more and removed his hand from his shoulder.  “I need to return to the Archives. You take care of yourself, Nightfire.  May we see each other again.”

“You too, Orion...and thank you,” Nightfire responded.

After Orion left, Nightfire was completely alone at the grave site, night fully fallen.  

_ My identity is mine and mine alone to forge and shape.  What made me, what I learned, who I know, all pieces to shape who I am.   _ He looked down at Starsong’s grave.   _ Some pieces I may not like, but I cannot discard it as they are a part of me as much as the rest.   _ Now he looked at Ebonscream’s.   _ And others I may disagree with, but will honor if I can. _

He looked back up at the stars.  Faintly, he could see the outlines of some of the Quintesson ships that hung in orbit.   _ For what you have done...I cannot...will not forgive.  Soon you will feel my wrath. Soon.... _

_ You will fear the name Starscream. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The holomitter disguises are a little homage to a tidbit I learned about the Prime show. That originally, Skyquake and Dreadwing were supposed to be Skywarp and Thundercracker respectively. Considering Warp and TC were (almost) always loyal to Screamer, I don't think it would have worked out well. (I mean...Warp smacking Screamer around? TC being so deadfast loyal to Megs? Yeah...no).
> 
> Very last few paragraphs were written to Randy Dominguez's 'Warrior'.
> 
> And now everyone knows who Nightfire really is!
> 
> That said, it may be a while before the next and final part of this particular series is posted *hasn't even started writing it...yet* I do plan on a little 'mini' series of the shenanigans Nightfire and the twins get up to between the two fics though.
> 
> However, the next part of the Trust and Loyalty series is finished! That I will start to post next Saturday!

**Author's Note:**

> Will update on Saturdays.


End file.
